MSFT: $200 MILLION in 24 hours - Thanks to HALO:Reach!
Microsoft has released a product that has been racking up truly impressive sales figures, with Halo: Reach taking in over $200 million within 24 hours of launch.
Arguably the most anticipated game of this year, Halo: Reach managed to become the highest grossing game Microsoft has ever released. While that might not sound all that impressive, given Microsoft's pedigree in gaming titles, when compared to other forms of entertainment it's easy to see that, amazingly, Microsoft really is onto a winner.
Microsoft confirmed that the $200 million mark took just 24 hours and easily eclipsed that of the most successful opening weekends of blockbuster movies. In fact Microsoft managed to get one over on Steve Jobs, in a manner of speaking.
The Apple cult leader owned a significant chunk of the animation outfit Pixar and now owns a big piece of Disney, having sold out to the Mickey Mouse firm. Even with Jobs promoting Toy Story 3 when he announced the Iphone OS 4, the cartoon managed to pull in only $109 million during its three-day opening weekend. Pfft, Noble Six won't even get out of bed for that.
Bungie's own statistics show well over 200,000 gamers online, playing over 8.5 million games in the past 24 hours alone. It is quite possible that Halo: Reach sales might in the coming months eclipse the $1 BILLION mark.
What these figures do go to show is that if content producers put out decent quality products, people will pay for them. The latest installment in the Halo franchise garnered universal praise and it is likely that through significant public beta testing and marketing, Microsoft has been able to develop a winner and rake in the cash.
