Halo 3 makes $300 million in one week

by Justin McElroy { Oct 4th 2007 at 9:50AM }

And now, a scene from Microsoft HQ:

Bill Gates: Listen, those Bungie guys are OK, and it's great having them on the softball team and all. But I think it's time we set them free.

Shane Kim: Yes, of course sir.

Bill: Let's let them get out there in the world, you know? Make that Pimps at Sea game they're always talking about. After all, Halo 3 only brought us in $170 million, that's like 10,000 Segways, that's nothing.

Shane: Actually sir, our most recent report is that the game made $300 million in its first week.

Bill: ... How late is Shackles, Chains and Beyond open?

Tags: billgates, BreakingNews, bungie, halo3, microsoft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Vegnagun @ Oct 4th 2007 9:54AM

Wait till the holidays. Gates is going to need more shackles.

LAZoftheTamarinds @ Oct 4th 2007 9:57AM

In these times it must be great to be Bungie, and great to be a gamer playing Halo 3. But better to be Bungie or Microsoft because of all that dough.

The1 @ Oct 4th 2007 10:36AM

MS would be FOOLS to get let Bungie go. Bungie is their only great venture with the fiasco with buy Rare which has produced nothing so great. MS should let Bungie what ever the heck they want to do. MS is crazy!!!!

okenny @ Oct 4th 2007 11:07AM

I'm not sure MS can prevent people from leaving even after throwing ninja stars made of money at their vital spots. People will want to go on sabbaticals while others will want to pull a Gaffi. My key belief is that both Bungie and Halo will be sticking around with Microsoft because from Bungie's own accounts and other third party press visits, it seems like Microsoft treats them well. Hell, I personally know 2 people who work for Microsoft who are no-where near their Interactive Games division who love the company.

With all the money this company is making and the fact that most game companies offer some kind of bonus depending on a game's market performance, it may be more accurate to just state that many have finally achieved their financial goals in life and are retiring from the game's industry completely.

Sowder @ Oct 4th 2007 9:58AM

Second!

jaybird1905 @ Oct 4th 2007 10:25AM

Third! Ouch!

Sowder @ Oct 4th 2007 10:51AM

By a freakin nano-second too...

Ska Oreo @ Oct 4th 2007 9:59AM

So I guess that this proves that dumb rumor wrong.

jsn @ Oct 4th 2007 10:00AM

I'd say they're in the black on this one by now...

samfish (MSDF- Nurse Outfit!) @ Oct 4th 2007 10:03AM

Wow, I never realized Bill gates was so kinky.

MIZRAHI! MIZRAHI!

Handy Manny @ Oct 4th 2007 10:06AM

haha, Sry about that but thanks for the laugh you made my day. Have a good one.

Matt B @ Oct 4th 2007 10:23AM

Where are the tools?

samfish (MSDF- Nurse Outfit!) @ Oct 4th 2007 10:03AM

Oh, you bastard! In before me by a minute!

Slaziman @ Oct 4th 2007 10:04AM

This is just counting the game sales and not the consoles sold because of it, which are probably a lot.

Elliot J @ Oct 4th 2007 10:05AM

Incredible.
Every night I log on around 4MST and there are over 700,000 people online playing and the number seems to go up everyday. Those are some ridiculous figures. Can't wait for the day when I log on to see "1,000,000 People Online".

zero @ Oct 4th 2007 3:11PM

So I guess we could safely say that the number IS OVER 9000!!!

xXFenixKnight13Xx @ Oct 4th 2007 10:08AM

A quote from the movie Friday

"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!!!!"

C @ Oct 4th 2007 10:10AM

I guess now we'll be seeing Halo the movie in theaters, 2009.

Ska Oreo @ Oct 4th 2007 10:11AM

Also if anyone wants to know, Halo 3 is doing ok in Japan, and is actually beating out games like Pokemon and FF7 crisis core.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/unfuckingbelievable/simple-2000-the-japanese-software-chart-where-halo-3-does-ok-306918.php

jsn @ Oct 4th 2007 10:19AM

that just goes to show that the japanese know a good game when they see it. Even if that game doesn't have pre-teen girls in their panties in every other scene.

xXFenixKnight13Xx @ Oct 4th 2007 10:22AM

Halo is Penetrating lol

Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Oct 4th 2007 10:40AM

And whats wrong with teen girls in their panties.

OHHHH you said PRE-teen girls.

Carry on.

Zertoss @ Oct 4th 2007 10:19AM

Michael Eisner: "Wow, the people look like ants from up here."

Bill Gates: "They ARE ants, Michael! They ARE ants!"

Phranctoast @ Oct 4th 2007 10:29AM

Peter here works for the Justice dept.

*punch*

Ska Oreo @ Oct 4th 2007 12:55PM

great episode. Too bad Family guy sucks now (the star wars special was horrible).

Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Oct 4th 2007 3:07PM

You got to watch the star wars special about 5 times, and drink through it at least once.

Then it becomes funny. I didn't think it was very funny either.

Ska Oreo @ Oct 4th 2007 3:30PM

If I really need to watch the episode 5 times and be drunk in order for it to be funny, than that's sad.

A better alternative would be to watch the Robot Chicken star wars special 5 times. And it would still be funnier than watching Family guy once.

Joshua @ Oct 4th 2007 10:21AM

That's a ****load of money.

Donald @ Oct 4th 2007 10:24AM

Even better; A METRIC fuckload

Phranctoast @ Oct 4th 2007 10:23AM

Now that they paid for its advertising the real profits could start ;)

jsn @ Oct 4th 2007 10:40AM

They took care of that in the first 24 hours..

okenny @ Oct 4th 2007 12:06PM

Beleive it or not, Microsoft only paid $10 Million total for advertising. They did many co-marketing campaigns where people paid them to use the Halo traidmark. This is the reason they marketed it like a movie would be marketed. Hollywood has been doing this for years... it's great to see someone stepping up in the game's industry and showing games can be effectively marketed this way as well.

How effective? These are numbers we may not see until each company involved releases their investor's reports. Obviously Microsoft will benefit the most but think many hands will be washed in this waterfall of cash!!

dunnypop @ Oct 4th 2007 10:23AM

there were over 1 million people online on the first few days.

$300 million...I guess this is on it's way to break game sales records.

On a side note, it looks like I'll be playing Halo 3 for a long time. Best $60 I've spend.

Gamerdad @ Oct 4th 2007 10:29AM

Thank you Halo 3 for helping me kick my WOW addiction. One week sober so far.

stoleyrbike @ Oct 4th 2007 10:30AM

christ these money-printing stories are a bummer. who cares how much money this boring game made. we all knew that millions of halo fans were jonesing for more of the same. they would have paid twice as much and cut off a nut for the thrill of reliving their wasted teenage years with slightly better gfx.

blooh (CDF - Ass Ring) @ Oct 4th 2007 10:34AM

lay off the attitude bro. who are you really mad at? your father?

jsn @ Oct 4th 2007 10:37AM

Kinda like how you're reliving your wasted teenage (or currently living) by trolling comments on joystiq?

Slaziman @ Oct 4th 2007 10:50AM

It's a direct sequel, of course they aren't gonna completely rebuild the gameplay. They added new elements like the equipment, as well as new weapons and grenades, and the fact they now added Forge and Saved Films is also huge. Slightly better GFX? You need glasses my friend.

Seriously, what WERE you expecting Halo 3 to be? What could have been done differently for the better (about the gameplay)? You don't even know.

WiseGuy @ Oct 4th 2007 10:53AM

Obviously you're mad for buying a PS3. Halo 3 Rocks!!!!!

Chris @ Oct 4th 2007 10:34AM

I'm sure that whole thing about Bungie splitting was a power play by Bungie. They knew if they threated to walk Microsoft would throw money at them to stay.

I mean it all happened so (in)conveniently after Halo 3 launched.

420sniper @ Oct 4th 2007 10:55AM

How could Bungie "walk"?

Aren't they owned by Microsoft? Don't they "belong" to Microsoft?

Anticrawl @ Oct 4th 2007 11:15AM

Yeah I could be wrong but then again so could every other comment here but I thought Bungie was now an "in-house" developer and had no controll over their company anymore. I remember back when they made the decision and about a third of the team, most notibly one of the two original founders didn't really agree and left to make their own company. They are Microsoft's little gimp and I'd be impossible no matter how hard they tugged to get free of that leash, but then again their fed well and got the security so why would they run?

The only way the Bungie team could break free of Microsoft is when their contracts run out rather than renew them with Microsoft they can leave Bungie/MS and start their own company, but that name Bungie is forever taken by Microsoft until they feel the need to sell it, but why would they when they can fill up a new team and just keep that name above their heads.

Korova @ Oct 4th 2007 1:22PM

But they really want to be an "out-house" developer!

You know, for shits and giggles.

0ldb0y @ Oct 4th 2007 10:37AM

I wonder how much productivity was lost in the workplace over this past week. It would be an interesting metric. Or how many sick days were used, classes were skipped, and hours of sleep were lost.

Gates doesn't only control your dollars, he controls you!