Unless you’ve been on a desert island for a while, you’ve probably heard that Microsoft has a video game called Halo 3 that was released recently. It has been all over the news lately, as journalists, gamers, and the entire video game industry are raving about it prominently. Some even call it the biggest event in entertainment history.

Even if you have no interest in video games, chances are you’ve heard of this one. Almost every television news show and news-oriented website on the Internet has published some kind of story recently about the release of Halo 3 on September 25, 2007, which makes it difficult not to know anything about this new video game. .

The Halo video game franchise is very successful and has a huge following behind it. Video game enthusiasts consider it the best first person shooter game of all time. The fans of this game are members of what is called Halo Nation and are just as devoted as fans of Trekkies or Star Wars. Many of them waited in long lines outside the retail stores that sell video games in hopes of being the first in their inner circle of gamer friends to buy and play Halo 3.

Some retail stores like the Best Buy store in New York City and EB Games in Los Angeles held special events at the stroke of midnight on September 25 to sell Halo 3 to eager customers who literally didn’t want to wait any longer than necessary. in to get your hands on this popular video game. With eager fans like these banging on the doors of their local stores to buy Halo 3, Microsoft is reported to have made $ 150 million in the first 2 days of sales.

Bungie Studios, which is a division of Microsoft, released the first of the Halo video games, Combat Evolved in 2001 and the franchise has been a success ever since. Many other products have been created around this video game, including a few more video games, a variety of action figures, and five novels. It has become a cultural phenomenon in the world of entertainment.

Halo 2 was released on November 9, 2004, and by February 2005, more than 9 million video games had been sold. Halo 2 broke video game sales records up to that point. Halo 3 is expected to break those records relatively quickly.

Microsoft is expected to earn around $ 560 million from Halo 3 video game sales with a 90 percent profit margin. They will also sell millions of Halo 3 versions of their Xbox 360 video game consoles that are already on the market. Millions of dollars will also be made from live online video game versions and a lot of money will be made from action figures and other trinkets.

The Halo series is based on a futuristic environment in which humans fight aliens across the galaxies with sophisticated weaponry. The main character is called Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-117 and the name Halo refers to a large, round structure. Master Chief is clad in futuristic body armor and armed to the teeth with technology and weapons. He is fully equipped to fight aliens.

Microsoft has spent about $ 55 million so far on Halo 3. About $ 25 million of that was spent on development. To carry out this project, a dream team of computer programmers and artists came together, numbering in the hundreds. They worked full time for over 3 years to create what some call a truly amazing interactive gaming experience. Senior employees on this team are expected to receive an additional $ 20 million in bonuses. The rest of the budget is spent on marketing and promoting this long-awaited Xbox 360 video game.

While Microsoft will spend $ 15 million to $ 20 million on TV marketing, this is a negligible sum for the amount of promotion they will get overall. Large corporations such as Burger King, Pepsi and Pontaic will pay the bill for the rest of the advertising while hooking their products to this video game giant.

Last year at this time, it was Sony’s Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and PSP that got all the media attention. Right now, it’s Microsoft and Xbox 360 games that are in the publicity’s spotlight. The recent launch of the Halo 3 video game along with products such as Xbox 360 video game consoles under the name Halo 3 will certainly put them back at the top of the video game industry once again.