Microsoft (MSFT) has set September 25 as the official release date for Halo 3, the new version of its wildly popular first-person shooter for the Xbox 360. Halo 3 may not drive Microsoft's financial performance with the same force as Vista and Office, but it really does matter to the company's bottom line - and in fact could drive the company's entertainment group, which includes Xbox, to a profit in the September quarter.
That's the conclusion of Goldman Sachs analyst Sarah Friar. In a research note this morning, she forecasts that Microsoft will ship 4.2 million copies of the new game into the channel in September, generating an estimated $170 million in revenue for the company. Friar thinks that is a conservative estimate, and that the actual total could as much as $50 million higher. Friar notes that the retail price for the standard version of the game will be $59.99, up from $49.99. She also says her estimate on the number of consoles installed "could be conservative," and says Xbox 360 sales could get a boost in the fall from both the release of Halo 3 itself, and from "a potential price cut" for the console, "perhaps in sync" with the game's debut.
Friar says her base case for the game "pushes the segment into slight profitability for the quarter."
Not every Halo game has been a banger, but the franchise still has a raft of the greatest games of all time.
Infinite is a dumpster fire and as much as I like ODST, in no universe it ranks above Halo 2. This list is trash.
Best to worst: Halo 3, Halo 2, Halo Reach, Halo CE, Halo 4, Halo ODST, Halo Infinite, Halo 5.
The Xbox 360 was a fantastic console in its day with some truly classic titles, but what are the seven best games for the console?
I'll go with,
Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Culdcept Saga, Shadow Complex, Ace Combat 6 with the flight stick,A Kingdom for Keflings, A World of Keflings.
Bonus Kinect Games: Happy Action Theater and Sesame Street.
*Skyrim was so bad on PS3 that it almost deserves to be #1*
Ah yes, Shadow Complex! Good indies back in the day. Summer of Arcade. I enjoyed Trials Evolution as well.
Was this made by a.i.? No human being would put Shadowrun, Fable III, and Splinter Cell: Conviction into a list of the 7 best Xbox 360 games.
Would love to play Ace Combat6 on PlayStation, but Xbox decided to buy exclusivity and keep it off a competing platform.
The only mainline game I never played except for one level at a friends place. Game sold less than any other in the series if I remember correctly.
360 had Namco hitters AC6 and RR6... both quality titles. You should at least bust out the 360 for AC6 if you can score the flight stick. Its great.
When the current gen XBOX offering is so lacking people need to refer to games released two generations back....
It's a nostalgia peice same reason we get thousands of YouTube videos on sega genisis. Something people have fond memories for but the era is long gone.
It's xboxs golden year imo it was their genisis years the time where they stuck it to the market leaders Sony.
They stuck nothing. Sony screwed themselves giving Xbox an opening. They would have gotten the usual smack down if the PS3 had launched at $399 and was easier to develop for.
The Xbox 360 launched in North America 18 years ago, and is now officially old enough to buy you a drink in Europe.
Great platform, and many of its games (not bc) still hold up well to this day. Like the PS3, I keep a 360 hooked up for those games you can't play any other way.
The last gasp of greatness from XBox, you are missed, except the RROD that was lame, but amazing exclusives until the Kinect dropped.
I really enjoyed my X360, some great exclusives on it. Used to play the shit out ot Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, two masterpieces
sept. will be
HUGE
for x360
even if for some reason H3 does not generate alot of hardware sales the software sales for H3 will be amazing.
love it or hate it - no one can stop the success H3 will have.
"Friar notes that the retail price for the standard version of the game will be $59.99, up from $49.99."
I hope as a analyst, she is taking into considering the cost of development into a next gen game and why its $59.99. We won't really know the actual cost of development until later and only than can we estimate on what kind of profit that Halo 3 will produce.
A potential price cut with the release of Halo 3 is not necessary at this point. I say at this point because there have been no indication yet of PS3 sales being bolstered due to 'positive press' after Gamer's Day. The 360 will only cut its price if they see significant gain of PS3 hardware sold in the coming months. They are indeed in a good position.
I do think that the MS Game Studios will finally get in the 'Black' after all these years of being in the 'Red'. I think MS has done all the right things so far into being a profitable company.
since halo 2 did 125 mil in rev on the first day there should be at least a 24 mil increase (2.4 million buyers X 10 more dollars per copy) but then if they couple that with the collectors/legendary edition the revenue will be up even higher. considering the legendary edition is twice what the normal costs every purchase there is almost like 2 overall purchases. So if they sell 100,000 legendary editions that's the revenue equivalent of 200,000... if you figure that some of the people that bought halo 2 are getting the legendary (like me) then the figure is no longer 2.4 but 2.5 (so 2.5 X 60 = 150 mil) If we then figure that microsoft is correct in stating that 50% of xbox 360 owners did not own the original xbox then we could see maybe half of them buying halo 3 because they want to try it out (of course, probably on 10% of that 50% will actually buy it on launch day) Figuring that that equals about 5 million users, 500,000 of which will buy halo 3 on launch day (who never owned an xbox) that could put total first day sales at around 3 million X 60 = 180 million.
This is all speculation... if they really hit 4 million preorders who knows what will happen on sept 25.
I would be very surprised if MS didn't have a price drop to go along with Halo 3, that would pretty much seal the deal and easly get Halo 3 to surpass Halo 2 in sales.
Followed by GTA4, Mass Effect, Too Human, AND lost Oddessy i think its going to be a sweet fall.
Halo 2 cleared $125 million in its first day.
This estimate may be conservative, indeed. It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out, what with Halo not having an extra push from the ramp up to Christmas, and with everyone questioning hardware sales.
Halo 2 also came out after Xbox was well-established, and having already had Halo on the same console. There's a whole extra level to considering how it will do now that a lot of people will be thinking about the relatively quick change between consoles, especially when Halo 2 is still supported on original Xbox.
Interesting indeed. A lot of analysts are going to get very rich on this one.