Back when the Halo 3 multiplayer beta was bundled with Crackdown, the game saw a massive increase in sales due to the fact. Well, Microsoft thinks tat the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta will be having the safe effect on Halo 3: ODST which is necessary to access the beta.
Microsoft’s Stephen McGill explains it thusly:
“Naturally, the demand for Halo 3: ODST will be reinvigorated as soon as the public Beta kicks off. We know a lot of our Halo community have the game and are eagerly awaiting May 3rd, but there are also a ton of Halo gamers who know and love the Halo universe, yet didn’t try Halo 3: ODST.”
So what about you guys? Do you already have Halo 3: ODST and if not, will you buy it for the Reach beta? Sound off in the comments.
Have you had your eye on the Xbox 360 Elite Spring Bundle on Amazon.com that comes with Forza Motorsport 3 and Halo 3: ODST but don’t want to order it online? Well now you don’t have to as it was just made knkown that the bundle is now available from GameStop for the same $299.99 price tag.
If you haven’t been paying attention, this bundle comes with the 120GB Xbox 360 Elite, Forza Mortorsport 3, Halo 3: ODST and all the bells and whistles normally bundled with a 360.
If you still haven’t hopped on the Xbox 360 bandwagon or just need a new console, you should check this one out. Microsoft has a new bundle in store for us and this time it includes both Halo 3: ODST, Forza Motorsport 3 and an Xbox 360 Elite console for just $300. For those who don’t know, the Elite is the 360 with a 120GB hard drive.
Amazon says that the bundle will go on sale March 9th. Hell, you’re even getting an invite to the Halo: Reach beta, not bad.
If you’ve been playing Halo ever since Combat Evolved, you’ll know that the number of in-game glitches present in Halo 3 was much lower than in the previous 2 games. This can most likely be attributed largely to the fact that the game had a beta which helped Bungie iron out all the kinks.
Well, Halo: Reach is set to have a beta too (which is probably the reason most of you bought ODST) but one on a much larger scale than Halo 3. In fact, Bungie estimates that over 3 million beta testers will be present for Halo: Reach which, if utilized correctly, will result in a very polished game. To put this in perspective, Halo 3 had just 800,000 beta testers.
If you’re one of the people looking to get down on the Reach beta, expect it sometime in May of this year.
During my Halo 3 days, ever since they added it I was an avid player of the MLG playlist. At first I wasn’t planning on buying ODST but when they required you to have the Heretic map in order to play said play list I cursed at Bungie and MLG and went out and bought it seeing as it wasn’t available via the Xbox Live Marketplace. Sure, the campaign what something new but the only reason I actually bought it was for that single map. $60 for a map, ridiculous, I know. Well, one thing led to another and I accidentally broke the ODST multiplayer disc making Heretic unable to load. At first I actually pondered going out to get a new disc just so I could get my MLG fix but ultimately made the concious decision against it.
Well now, I can finally hop back into the playlist as Bungie has just made Heretic, Citadel and Longshore, the ODST exclusive maps, available for purchase on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Of course, I’m going to be forced to pay 800 Microsoft Points for something I already have (well, had) but that sure as hell beats going out and spending another $50+ on a used ODST. I’m just hoping they’ll still let me into the Halo: Reach beta. If so, except a hands on video right when it drops sometime after April 28th.
What better way to prove your Halo fanboyism than the cruise down the street on a motorcycle wearing an ODST helmet? What may have seemed like a dream to you Halo feins may soon be a realty as what you see above is the X-Lite X-802 concept motorcycle helmet.
Now, the chances of this helmet ever being made available are currently unknown but we’ll keep an eye on it and let you know.
VGChartz has recently posted up the results for the first week of sales for Halo 3: ODST and the results are sure to have both Bungie and Microsoft a bit excited. It seems that judging by “week one” sales alone, Halo 3: ODST is now the third fastest selling game of all time behind only Halo 3 and GTA IV with Gears of War 2 close behind in 4th.
However, you have to make note that ODST was released on a Tuesday while Gears of War 2 was released on a Friday, giving ODST 5 days in their first week of sales while Gears 2 only had 2. So, literally, it’s the 4th fastest selling Xbox 360 game but technically. it’s the third. Get it?
Anyways, sales were right around 1.8 million with 1.7 million of those copies being taken off store shelves in North America, 230,000 in the UK, 50,000 in France and about 20,000 in Japan.
So, it’s official, put Halo on anything and it’ll sell like hot cakes!
If you thought that the Halo franchise was no longer popular, you’d be wrong and we have proof! In just 24 hours since Halo 3: ODST has been on store shelves close to 1 million players have logged onto the game. Furthermore, more than 6 million games have been logged in this same time period ensuring ODST‘s popularity.
To put this into comparison, Halo 3 itself logged around 1.5 million players and around the same number of games during the same time slot. Now we’ll just have to wait a few days and see how these numbers fluctuate before we pass judgment but as of now Halo 3: ODST seems to be a hit.
If you want to see these numbers for yourself head over to Bungie.net where they have a widget proudly displaying said numbers.
Considering Modern Warfare 2 is gearing up to be such a big launch Microsoft and Infinity Ward have announced a special edition Xbox 360 console that we showed you earlier today. Well, you didn’t they wouldn’t give Halo 3: ODST the same kind of treatment, did you? OK, good, for what you see above is a Halo 3: ODST Xbox 360 Elite SKU currently schedule for launch only in Europe.
Unfortunately, there will be no ODST brandings on the console itself but it will include Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and the Halo: Reach beta in addition to a Xbox Live 1-month membership card.
There’s no word if us Americans will ever be seeing this SKU but European gamers can expect it to hit store shelves sometime in early October.
Now we’re not sure how long the above video is going to be around for so if you’re looking to get in on the action, you better do it fast. But anyways, included in said video is over 8 minutes of leaked Halo 3: ODST footage. Of course, being campaign footage there will be a ton of spoilers so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
As for the rest of us who don’t like spoilers, well, we’re just going to have to wait until September 22nd when the game is officially released.
