While there are occasionally sales surprises during a gaming year, Halo 3 is not one of them. Indeed, the game's success was forecast by analysts, anticipated with millions of pre-orders and validated with millions of sales almost instantly. It's the sort of rare game that singly has a huge impact on the industry's health for the year and the fortunes of the Xbox 360 going forward.

The game's significance extends beyond the gaming sphere as well, and has made a mark on the entertainment industry as a whole. Its first day sales officially obliterated any 24-hour sales mark by any entertainment product, including movie blockbusters like Spider-Man 3 and novels like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It's a mark that might not be topped... until Halo 4.

We sat down with Josh Goldberg, U.S. Marketing Manager of Microsoft, and discussed why the third time was really the charm.

Halo 3 Hits, consuming millions in the impact
To read off the results of Halo 3's early market performance is kind of like listing the honors and titles of an acclaimed official; it just keeps on going. The game was already a guaranteed success before its release, with over 1.7 million pre-orders, which resulted in an estimated 2.34 million unit sales (according to GameDaily BIZ) on the first day alone. This equaled about $170 million first-day sales, with a total of $300 million in sales for the first week.

"In our first day, Halo 3 grossed over $170 million dollars at retail," gushed Goldberg. "When comparing to the biggest launches in entertainment, Halo 3 eclipses all movie, music, and book launches in the U.S.! With Halo 3 we had very high expectations to begin with - we knew Halo 2 was an incredible success and we wanted to make Halo 3 even bigger. Our goal was to be the biggest entertainment launch ever, and we did that with the incredible $170 million day 1 number.

"The Halo 3 launch was also about driving the entire Xbox 360 ecosystem – consoles, accessories, Xbox Live. We announced that early indications show Xbox 360 console sales more than doubled for the week of Halo 3 launch, and nearly 3 million people played Halo 3 on Xbox Live. These numbers show the Halo 3 launch truly did drive the entire ecosystem bringing increased traffic to our retail partners and growing the entire gaming category."

Halo 3 was going to sell millions of copies regardless, but Microsoft went above and beyond the call of duty with special releases of the game to excite the fans. There was not only a Collector's Edition with a bonus disc and artbook, but also a Legendary Edition including a Legendary DVD and a replica of Master Chief's helmet. These extra releases, which sell at higher average retail prices (and the fact that fans snapped them up eagerly on the first day), clearly helped Halo 3's release easily outpace the impressive numbers of Halo 2 just three years ago. Goldberg commented that everyone at Microsoft is "very excited" by the early indications of Halo 3's sales. Xbox 360 console sales have already risen on the back of Master Chief, and Halo 3 will no doubt continue to drive the Xbox business this holiday.

4 player co-op multiplayer FTW
Halo 2, even a couple years after the release of the Xbox 360, was still far and away the most popular title over Xbox Live. As such, Bungie spent a lot of time refining the experience so that there would be even more to experience in the sequel. To that end, they also added things like Forge mode and the ability to upload videos to really make Halo 3 the total package.

"In the first 20 hours the game was available we saw over 1 million people playing online, and in the first week nearly 3 million people played Halo 3 online. Those numbers alone speak to the incredible demand for the game, and the amazing response we are seeing for all of the online features," explained Goldberg. "Halo 2 continues to be played by thousands and thousands of consumers years after the launch of the game. With Halo 3 we're providing features like Forge, Saved Films, 4-player co-op, plus the amazing multiplayer experience that has been improved in this version, Halo 3 will be played and purchased for years to come. We're excited to see what amazing things our fans will do with these tools."

On the other hand, there were just as many players (if not more) that didn't care about competitive multiplayer over Xbox Live and instead cared more about "finishing the fight." Halo 3 is the story climax of the trilogy that goes back to the original Halo: Combat Evolved. One of Halo's greatest strengths over the years has been its cooperative play to experience the story with a friend, and Halo 3 does one better than its predecessors by having 4 player co-op via Xbox Live, providing a feature people have been requesting for years.

"The story is a major strength of the franchise and definitely the area we focused on with our 'Believe' advertising campaign. Elevating Master Chief to become the hero for everyone was very important for us to bring in a wide range of consumers to Halo 3. Early on we promoted the 'Finish the Fight' tagline to really get the core gamers excited about the conclusion of the trilogy, but at launch our emphasis was to bring an emotional hook to expand the excitement to even more consumers," said Goldberg. "4 player cooperative play is an exciting feature for us as it provides a great way to bring friends together playing alongside one another even if they aren't in the same room or city even. We definitely feel this features has driven even more interest in our Xbox Live service. And anecdotally we're really excited hearing fans bring in friends and family that never played Halo before but are now able to finish the fight together. And it also showcases the quality and innovation coming out of Microsoft Game Studios."

Microsoft marketing levels up
The Halo 3 advertising campaign literally took video games to a whole new level of exposure. The cross promotions with partners like Pepsi, Burger King, 7/Eleven and others were more akin to a blockbuster movie release than a game release. To read more about Halo 3's ad campaign, please read GameDaily BIZ's recent Ad Watch.

"The 'Believe' campaign really allowed us to bring in new consumers by focusing on an emotional hook and showcasing Master Chief as a hero for everyone," explained Goldberg. "The online site (halo3.com/believe) is a very engaging extension of the TV campaign allowing people to get inside this memorial to Master Chief."

"One of our major marketing initiatives with Halo 3 was developing incredible promotions that helped elevate the game to pop culture status and increase awareness among broader audiences," he added. "Our partnership with Mountain Dew was a great example of this where Mountain Dew launched a drink inspired by Halo 3 called Mountain Dew Game Fuel. With it Master Chief and Halo 3 are on millions of cans and bottles around the nation, along with great co-branded advertising extending the reach of our Halo 3 campaign. Additional promotions with Pontiac, Burger King, and the Projekt Revolution tour brought Master Chief and Halo 3 to millions of consumers around the nation.

With millions of copies already in people's homes, additional content like the Halo 2 map pack seems like the next logical step. Goldberg didn't get ahead of himself, however, and said, "We're excited about all of the Xbox Live features of Halo 3. But we aren't quite ready to announce any of the downloadable content just yet."