Change in Sales Game of the Day - Halo 3 - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 28 September 2009 / 5,166 Views
Change in Sales Game of the Day
Halo 3
| Title | Last Gen Sales | % Change in Game Sales Between Generations | % Change in Platform Size Between Generations |
| Halo Combat Evolved | 6.43 | 58.01 | 32.07 |
| Halo 2 | 8.43 | 20.52 | 32.07 |
| Average | 7.43 | 39.27 | 32.07 |
| Halo 3 Sales | 10.16 |
Description: Halo 3 recently became the first title on one of the HD platforms to cross the 10 million mark. The franchise began huge last generation on the original Xbox, but neither of the versions on that system really came close to the 10 million mark. So why has Halo 3 so easily outperformed its last generation counterparts? Was it the aggressive marketing campaign, or the fact that the 360 is a more popular system than the original Xbox, or something else? Read on to find out what we decided.
As always, input from the VGChartz community is a big part of the “Sales of the Day” articles, so let’s have a look at what they think the reason behind Halo 3's increase compared to its predecessors is.
It was a tight race for the top spot, with three choices getting a large number of votes and the “Stronger marketing” option just beating out “The franchise is growing in popularity” and “The larger install base of the console”. Coming in last with a measly one percent of the vote was the “Had less competition this generation…” option.
As most of you know Halo 3 holds the single platform opening week record with 3.82 million copies sold. I think that can be attributed to two factors, the primary one being the aggressive marketing campaign. Halo 3 had a rumored total marketing budget of 40 million (roughly on par with a movie studio’s marketing budget for a summer blockbuster), including 10 million dollars just for the “Believe” campaign (brandweek) as well as the famous Halo 3 Mountain Dew “Game Fuel” beverage made specifically for Halo 3. With that kind of promotion there is no denying marketing played a part in the huge success of Halo 3. In fact the marketing of the game was designed to specifically eclipse the sales of the previous opening day record holder, Halo 2.
In addition to the marketing, the franchise growing in popularity (as well as the first person shooter genre in general) contributed to that opening week total. The first person shooter genre has seemingly become the most popular game genre with this generation of consoles, with games like Call of Duty, Bioshock, Resistance, Killzone 2 etc. as well as the Halo franchise taking up many spots on the HD platforms’ best sellers list.
The huge opening week only tells a part of the story for Halo 3’s sales though. If you compare first month sales to total sales for the game, you will find that Halo 2 (first month counts for ~55% of total) was actually more frontloaded than Halo 3 (first month currently counts for ~50% of total) despite Halo 3 having a bigger launch. So after the marketing hype for the game wore off, it was still performing stronger than its predecessors.That means some of the other three choices are at least partially responsible for the game’s sales. I included the choice “had less competition this generation than last generation” in the poll because I think that can be a factor in some cases, but not here. Just by looking at the top sellers on the platforms, you’ll see that the Xbox had around fifty million sellers, compared to the ~70 and counting on the Xbox 360, meaning there is no shortage of competition on the 360.
So of the remaining two choices, let’s start with “the larger install base”. The Xbox 360 is more successful console than the Xbox, so it also makes sense that the console’s most successful franchise will perform better. The 360 has performed significantly stronger than the Xbox in Europe/Others, and Halo 3 has sold around 30% more than Halo 2 in the region.
Even with the larger install base I think there is still some of the increase left unexplained. If you look at the graph you can see the first few weeks of Halo 2 and 3 were similar, with Halo 2 actually holding the lead for a little while thanks to a release during the holiday period. However; Halo 3 continued to sell more on a weekly basis than Halo 2. A sales pattern like that is typically associated with positive word of mouth. While it may be difficult to objectively say which game in the franchise is of higher quality, there is no denying Halo 3 had the larger focus on multiplayer game play. Multiplayer gaming lends itself to positive word of mouth as people with the game continue to play it long after its release, and encourage friends to pick up the title as well.
That’s my opinion, but here is a look at a couple of the best VGChartz community members thoughts from the thread.
2. themanwithnoname – “Well, the franchise was gaining momentum, but I don't really think that can be attributed to just being on the 360, I don't think the install base was that much larger at launch than Halo 2's was, though I could be wrong. Do I think the game would've increased sales if Microsoft didn't advertise it like there was no tomorrow? Probably, but I think the ads convinced a lot of people that this was not a game to miss. Of course, then you have word of mouth, which has given it legs for two years now, elevating it into the stratosphere now, over 10 million.”
1. Reasonable – “Well... I'd say the following were the factors: Halo franchise popularity is on an upwards curve due to this increasing penetration of 360 into what was formerly a PC focused player base, and Halo is the flagship title associated with that. Increase brand awareness and identification of Halo 3 as the obligatory first person shooter and online multiplayer title for 360 - as a result, a large percentage of 360 purchases will get the game where other titles have dropped from focus to be replaced by newer titles. Shift in the title itself from single player to multiplayer, with Halo 3 really representing an almost exclusively multiplayer orientated title with a short single player campaign tacked on, making Halo 3 a huge ongoing proposition on the 360 with the title almost always the number 1 Live title being played.”
That’s it for today’s Change in Sales Game of the Day, look out for another edition next week, and check out the thread for the most recent Sales Battle of the Day and the follow up article which will be posted tomorrow.
Most recent "Sales of the Day" articles, Change in Sales, Sales Battle, Retro Sales, Look at Those Legs.
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CoD MW2 will dethrone Halo 3 for awhile - then Reach will obliterate them both.
I can't wait until halo reach i will pass on halo odst i don't think the game is worth the 60 dollars maybe 40 but no 60
i dont like halo, but i must admit that is a already a classic between games.
Halo is king of FPS anyone who even casually enjoys a first person shooter picked this title up. The big marketing push ensured that.
Well...while Halo 3 is top dog for the 360, it doesn't hurt other franchises...look at MW or GearsOW, so Halo isn't some vacuum for 360 owners, stiffling all other games.
This is very interesting.
Only Call of Duty : MW 2, and Halo : Reach can dethrone Halo 3's number one Xbox live spot. I think that says it all.
