At the MI6 marketing conference in San Francisco, GameDaily reports on how Halo 3's marketing molded the image of Master Chief. Jerret West, global group product manager at Microsoft, explains they didn't want to portray Master Chief "as a reckless American cowboy." They needed him to be accepted as a savior of humanity and integrate Halo into pop culture. West notes the team had pop culture benchmarks like making the cover of Time or Wired, and worked with numerous other companies to push marketing ideas.

Chris Lee, a product manager from Microsoft, points out that Halo didn't have an awareness problem, it had a perception problem for being too hardcore. Looks like the team's efforts to make the Master Chief mainstream worked out. Halo 3 ended up becoming one of the best selling games last year.

Everybody knows that vacuum designers can draw inspiration from pretty much anywhere. How many times have you passed an odd man or woman staring at some feature of the landscape, lost in their own world and thought "I bet that's a vacuum designer." All the time, right? Well, finally, vacuum designers are turning their keen eye to video games for inspiration with the Samsung Silencio SC9540 which looks, well, a lot like Master Chief's helmet. First soda, now vacuums, is there anything that guy can't do? (Besides, obviously, taking his helmet off.)

Now, we know the fine people of Samsung can't exactly start branding this with a Halo logo, but if we see one ad that tells us it's time to "Finish the fight ... against dust and allergens" we're going to be sorely tempted to finally invest in a vacuum.

[Thanks, eldee]

We'll admit that sometimes we start to think a little too highly of ourselves. We'll just be sitting in the back of the limo popping Cristal with Shiggy and Mario or getting massages with CliffyB, and we'll all of a sudden realize that we're getting above our raising, as they say. Luckily, YouTuber macpulenta's striking drawing of Master Chief is there to remind us that Ben Folds had it right - there's always someone cooler than you.

His art is fantastic, that's a given. But the special thing about macpulenta should become pretty quickly. Namely: He's a drawing android. Or he's using magic. If there's any other excuse for the speed with which he's able to render our favorite Spartan, we'd love to hear it.

[Thanks, Moo]

Expanding on their series of Halo 3 dolls, McFarlane toys started pre-orders today on the Halo 3 Active Camouflage Spartan figure. The action figure is modeled after the EVA Armor and will not be sold in stores. Pre-order registration begins today and runs through Dec. 12, the figure will be available in May '08.

McFarlane also produced a set of Halo 3 controllers and a slew of other Halo figures. Wonder if McFarlane will come out with a Halo camouflage controller, which would consist of two clear pieces of plastic as the controller's body? Easy money.

[Thanks TMD]

When he's not bringing Shatner back, MySpace user, James at War turns Akon's apologetic anthem, Sorry Blame Me, into a Halo 3 tribute.

And while it's an attempt to appease the videogame widows as much a song about the game, notice how the lyrics never take responsibility; you can sense the singer slinking back to the game during the slow fade-out. Yes, that sounds like a typical gamer to us.

Watch the music video after the break, and hum it to your loved ones.

As satires of Halo culture go, the Master Chief Sucks series is pretty damned spot on, and the third entry is no exception.So, you all remember how much Master Chief sucked at the Halo 3 beta, right? And of course he sucked at Halo 2 as well. Well, now Halo 3 is finally here and he's putting it to the test. Far be it from us to spoil such a momentous occasion, but he sucks at Halo 3 as well. Still, the Chief manages to pull off an actual headshot. Yes, you heard that right. A headshot. So, what else can he do but make his own 1337 montage video? Nothing, that's what. Check out the video above. If you need a refresher on the first two episodes, find them embedded after the break.

[Via Joystiq]

Well, you thought maybe he was down for the count with the release of Halo 3, right? Master Chief would be far too busy to make a sequel. Perhaps even too busy to utter a single lolololololol. Well, you were wrong. Here's the proof. He's been drinking Halo 3 Mountain Dew, reading Halo novels, and wearing the Halo 3 helmet.

You get to see how Master Chief puts his little videos together, how he types, and how l33t he is. Just check out the headshot he manages to get. We can hardly wait for Master Chief Sucks At Halo 4. There's gonna be one, right? RIGHT?! We'll be here, waiting.

If you haven't seen the original Master Chief Sucks At Halo, or the sequel, then you've been missing out. Check 'em out, and then take a gander at part three.

In attending a few select Japanese stores on the morning of the launch of some game starring some guy about rings in space or something (the kids keep calling it Halo 3, but we've never heard of it), Kotaku found that many consumers also took the opportunity to purchase a Wii. As big fans of the console, we're always glad to see more people picking it up and checking out all of the awesome stuff available on the platform.

But, it's such a night and day thing. When picking up a game for Microsoft's system, why would they also pick up a Wii console? Also, it might sadden a few of you still on the hunt to know that the Japanese retail outlets that the Kotaku folk visited were chock full of consoles, almost stacked to the heavens.

Oh cruel fate! Here we are, delivering this exquisite Master Chief papercraft to you complete with instructions, and the only people who would likely take the time to replicate something like this are, you know, playing Halo 3. Bitter irony, thy name is papercraft.

Luckily, the artist's work does not have to be in vain. Laymen like us can appreciate the wood pulp-based sculpture from afar without having to actually pick up the scissors and glue. ... Come to think of it, when the Halo dolls become sentinent (and they will) it's probably better that we have as few of these things lying around as possible.

[Via Wonderland]

We looked for something unrelated to Halo for our video pick, but eventually just learned to stop worrying and love the bomb. This Spike TV GameHead clip shows Halo fan, Devin White's rough process in creating Master Chief armor. (We'd call it cosplay, but that's like calling G.I. Joe a doll.) White casts molds from his clay sculptures to create plastic, glistening armor and helmets.

The race is on to hollow-out the Legendary box into a small, pet-wearable helmet. Watch this fan build a human-wearable one from scratch after the break.

So there's this Halo 3 launch thing going on and it's apparently big, so big that firm Goldman Sachs projects it might actually bring Microsoft's Xbox division into "slight profitability." Analysts for the firm say that Microsoft will ship 4.2 million copies of Halo by the end of September. Even if all those were the normal $60 version that's still $252 million. Microsoft's fiscal quarter ends at the end of the week and the game is expected to bring in $170 million by then, meaning the Xbox division will have its first quarter of profitability since the launch of the original Xbox. It's back to black baby -- for now.

The September NPD numbers expected in mid October will be incredibly interesting in terms of the Halo effect. Halo 3 is guaranteed to be the top selling game (only an act of whatever deity you believe in could stop that at this point), but we're more interested to see the Xbox 360 sales figures. Goldman Sachs expects the momentum of the Halo launch to last well into next year. Wait, hold up ... are they saying Microsoft could have two profitable quarters in the Xbox's entertainment and devices division? *faint*

[Via GameDaily]

We can't figure what's more awkward about this "Halo Nights" music video: the idea of walking in and catching Spartan 117 feeling up your girlfriend with a plasma grenade, or the horrible dancing and singing done for the sake of satire. Either way, it's not a video you're going to want to watch more than once, so be sure to appreciate the actually-impressive Master Chief costume as it blue-screen boogies to the beat of Team Tiger Awesome. Awkwardness abounds after the break.

We've got more details now about the Halo 3 action figures being produced by McFarlane toys and Microsoft. The six-inch tall dolls are expected to release in the spring of '08. We received a plethora of information regarding the proposed lineup of action figures back when they were announced in June, but now we have a much better idea of what they look like and price. Above you can see Cortana and after the break you'll find the Master Chief.

This would not be the first time in recent memory McFarlane and Microsoft collaborated. McFarlane also did the art for a few official Halo 3 controllers that came out this year as well. The action figures do look nice even as prototypes and the $14 price isn't half bad. And we do get a chuckle knowing somewhere out there this spring a little boy will play out inappropriate scenes between his Halo and Gears of War dolls action figures.

[Via BBPS]

And we're in the final stretch as the Halo 3 marketing machine goes into overdrive and assaults the broadcast medium this weekend. Variety got the details on what Chris Di Cesare, Xbox director of product marketing, calls "magnifying the mania." Expect original programming that'll bring newbs to the Halo franchise -- and the Xbox 360 -- by focusing on networks with demographics in line with the Master Chief plan.

It starts Saturday on Comedy Central with Fully Loaded, two-minute mini-ads hosted by Mad TV's Bobby Lee, which were taped at Tao Beach nightclub following the Madame Tussauds unveiling on the weekend of the MTV Video Music Awards. Spike TV's Game Head will host a live feed Monday night, breaking in with coverage during commercial breaks, and then air a half-hour special at midnight called: Halo 3 Launched. That program will feature a performance by Linkin Park. G4 has also set five hours of time aside for the launch as well. On Tuesday, Sci Fi Channel will show Halo 3: Sci vs. Fi. Of course, we'd love to stay home and watch all this launch coverage, but we'll be too busy doing our own coverage, which mostly consists of us waiting in line like everybody else, taking photos and getting quotes.