Looks like Robbie Bach was right. Remember when we reported a few weeks back that Halo 3 pre-orders had topped 4 million at GameStop? It looks like analysts are paying close attention to that number and are now saying that Halo 3 is shaping up to do some very nice business for Microsoft. While this isn't exactly a shock, we didn't realize just how nice that business is expected to be. GameSpot reports that Goldman-Sachs expects Halo 3 to reach $170 million in sales during its first week of availability, with more than 4.2 million copies shipped to retail. Given Goldman-Sachs estimate that there will be 13.2 million Xbox 360s sold by September, that's 1 copy of Halo 3 for every 3 Xbox 360s in the world. Furthermore, the group notes that the $170 million estimate may be as much as $50 million too low, depending on the actual Xbox 360 install base. Finally, if these estimates prove true, Halo 3 could very likely propel the Xbox into its first profitable quarter ever (it just so happens that Halo 3 debuts right at the end of Microsoft's first fiscal quarter for 2008). After nearly 6 years in the red, we imagine the Xbox Division has a mighty big circle around September 25 on the office calendar.
[Via GameStooge]
