Halo 3: Why Does It Have To Be Great?…The Facts Unveiled.

Before I start I would like to remind you guys that the competition is still running with only 2 weeks left until someone wins either a free PAL copy of Halo 3 (the most anticipated game this year) or $50 if you don’t own an Xbox 360 or just like money instead (Enter Now) – UPDATE: PROMOTION NOW OVER.

Why is Halo 3 So Great?

We all must have heard about Halo 1 or Halo 2, they where more or less the best selling games for the original Xbox console with millions of sales and new subscriptions to xbox live, infact there still are players on halo 2 online and the SweetHacks Clan is growing Everyday. We go by the name of SweetHacks Com

This will be the first Halo for the Xbox 360, and it comes at a critical point in the console wars, with Microsoft fighting both Sony’s graphically superior PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s unexpected hit, the wrist-twisting Wii. Microsoft needs Halo 3 to be a system seller ? a game so good that people buy an Xbox 360 just to play it (the original Xbox’s only profitable quarter came during the launch of Halo 2).

“I don’t see any other game that’s going to have as big a blast radius for the Xbox as Halo 3,”….”They need to sell a lot of consoles for Microsoft.”…..Dean Takahashi, author of The Xbox 360 Uncloaked.

When Bungie demo’d the game at Macworld Expo in 1999, fans were awestruck and so were Microsoft game executives. They were looking for a system seller for their forthcoming Xbox and for the Xbox Live online service they hoped to launch shortly thereafter. Microsoft bought Bungie in 2000 for a reported $50 million; a year later, Halo, recoded for Microsoft’s console, became the must-have game of the year. It instantly transformed the Xbox from a dubious proposition to a credible alternative to the then-dominant PlayStation 2. Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer began pushing hard for a sequel.

The pressure to deliver nearly destroyed Bungie. When it began making the original Halo, the design team consisted of 10 people. They could all sit in a single room and communicate by yelling over their shoulders or peering at each other’s cool creations onscreen. To make Halo 2, the company ballooned to more than 60. Separate teams formed to design each level of the game, but they didn’t coordinate their efforts: When project leaders assembled the pieces for the first time, they discovered that the story was incomprehensible and the game whipsawed from too easy to nearly impossible. But being such an awesome team they managed yet again to create a magnificent sequel to the already current hit (halo 1).

But now they face the most difficult task, a continuation of the success of halo 2 which as we said earlier had nearly destroyed the bungie team. Creating a sequel on the original Xbox is easy compared to creating a game which the purpose of is split into two:

1) Increase sales of the Xbox 360 Console
2) Increase sales of Xbox Live (Subscriptions)

“One aspect of Halo 2 did blow everyone away: multiplayer matches over the Internet. No console game had yet mastered online play.”

To show their success in creating a fantastic number 3 in the halo series, bungie & microsoft released a online multiplayer beta for the period of one month and boy must I say it was unbelievable! The superior graphics has single handedly transformed the game into so much more than what it used to be before. Yes, essentially its halo 2 in better graphics but then again, did we want a NEW game? OR halo 2 revamped? Dont forget the new whole arsenal of weapons, the fantastic new maps and the new features within the game such as saving films of the game you just played and probably “owned” in. In my opinion, halo 3 will sell, in fact I am sure it will be THE game that puts the Xbox 360 firmly in the number one position. The king of consoles will be mounting its throne come 24/25th September, beware Playstation! –

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Sources: Wired, Bungie, Microsoft (Xbox), Gamespot, IGN (Some extracts of this post are a direct copy from their respective owners, and full credits have been given)