Bungie's Halo: Reach will be one of the biggest sellers of the year when it launches this fall. Microsoft today announced an official worldwide launch date for the title: September 14 (Sept. 15 in Japan). The recently concluded multiplayer beta for the game saw 1.2 million players on day one and today Microsoft said that 2.7 million players made "history with record-shattering demand" for the beta.
“Halo: Reach is the culmination of a decade of Halo, a franchise that has become a global entertainment and pop-culture touchstone,” said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios at Microsoft Corp. “Just as Halo: Combat Evolved catalyzed the success of the original Xbox to define a decade of entertainment, Halo: Reach will push the boundaries for what’s possible in video games and help make 2010 the biggest year in Xbox history.”
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Halo: Reach will be one of the biggest games and hottest entertainment products of the year,” said Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop. “Pre-orders for Halo: Reach have been off the charts, with fans snapping up the limited and legendary editions since they were introduced just a month ago. Overall, it’s a real testament to the passion of the Halo fan base.”
The Halo franchise has sold more than 34 million games worldwide to date.
1 Comments
May 24, 2010
I'll buy Halo:Reach, and I won't even really know why.
I played Halo 1 on the Xbox (which I only had for about 3 months before I sold it.... Playstation fanboy here), never got around to playing Halo 2 and was in no way excited for Halo 3. Yet somehow I found myself walking into a HMV store on launch day and picking it up. Played the SP campaign, found it wanting and then barely touched MP.
And then I bought ODST on launch day, of which I've played about an hour into the campaign. Used the code for the Reach beta, played a couple of games, was underwhelmed and didn't go back to it.
So why will I buy Reach? Sadly, I'll get caught up on the hype-train and somehow convince myself that Bungie will provide a superlative SP campaign.
Game developers must love people like me, people who will buy God of War 3 even though I enjoy hack'n'slashers slighly less than hemorrhoids.