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Halo 4 is Top-Selling Microsoft Studios Game of Its Respective Launch Year

CyReN

Member
Exciting news for the Halo team at 343 Industries and Microsoft Studios – critically acclaimed, “Halo 4” is now the best-selling Microsoft Studios title ever in the U.S. market*, surpassing its predecessor, “Halo 3” for sales during each respective launch year.

In “Halo 4” the Master Chief returned to battle an ancient evil bent on vengeance and annihilation. You are immersed in “Halo 4’s” graphics, sound and epic game play as you are shipwrecked on a mysterious world, faced with new enemies, deadly technology, and a universe that will never be the same. You can enlist aboard the UNSC Infinity to experience Halo's original multiplayer and Spartan Ops - innovative episodic fiction-based co-op missions.

If you haven’t experienced “Halo 4” yet, you can find out more here. Congrats to the team at 343 Industries and Microsoft Studios!

http://news.xbox.com/2013/07/games-halo-4-top-seller
 
That's an incredible shame. Halo 4 is terrible.

I might go out and buy a few more copies of CE just to try to set things right. I mean, I've already bought 5, why not more.

Edit: Looks like this is some numbers game. They're talking about per year. Disingenuous.
 

jtb

Banned
press release only says during each respective launch years, which makes sense. bigger install base = more frontloaded sales.

how much has Reach and 3 sold LTD? more or less than 2? (I suspect more, if only because of the install base, but 2 was a pretty huge back in the day). interesting to see how the franchise has grown (or shrunk) over the course of the 360's life.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
This is very confusing to me. Best selling of all time of best selling of respective launch year?
 

Boss Man

Member
Why does everyone hate Halo 4 now? It seemed like everyone was enamored with 343 when this was just coming out, and I played through half of the campaign with a friend and it felt like Halo to me.

Did they screw up the multiplayer balance or something?
 

J@hranimo

Banned
While I find Halo 4's multiplayer fun as hell, the community isn't there like 3 so.....I don't understand this.
 

statham

Member
This is very confusing to me. Best selling of all time of best selling of respective launch year?

Halo 4 has sold very well, but they are messing with the numbers. Whoever Microsoft hires to replace Don needs to end this.
 

Road

Member
I'm confused. Has the total number of sales surpassed Halo 3, or are they only talking about how each has sold year to year?

It's not total. It's not even the first year.

*According to Microsoft retail sales sell-through data for each respective fiscal year

It is only from launch until the end of the current Microsoft fiscal year (June 30).

Halo 4 was released in Nov. while Halo 3 in September; on the other hand there were only 10.5 million 360s sold in the US by Jun. 30, 2008, compared to the 39 million are there now.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
how much has Reach and 3 sold LTD? more or less than 2? (I suspect more, if only because of the install base, but 2 was a pretty huge back in the day). interesting to see how the franchise has grown (or shrunk) over the course of the 360's life.

Unfortunately there's weasel wording in the OP news release and figures are going to be impossible to know given that every Halo game is a decent seller in digital distribution, but here are NPD's LTD figures--rounded to nearest 100,000, rounded down

Halo 1: 4.3 million
Halo 2: 3.8 million 5.5 million (forgot to combine LE and regular)
Halo 3: 6.7 million
Halo Wars: 1.0 million
Halo ODST: 2.6 million
Halo Reach: 4.9 million
Halo CE:A: 1.1 million
Halo 4: 5.0 million

Again, the OP news article seems to be pulling some bait-and-switch about "best selling during first [fiscal?] year of sales" and presumably includes DD figures (although maybe not?), so take the comparison with a grain of salt.
 

Blueblur1

Member
I figured something was off. No way that game was the best seller ever. Especially with the dwindling player population.
 

Sean*O

Member
These guys are like ESPN statisticians, they can always come up with some way to make something into some kind of record.
 

Red_Man

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016
Nice twisting of the numbers, it's the worst in the series by far. Shame too, used to be my most played franchise.
 

Izick

Member
I really like Halo 4, so I'm glad it's doing well. I know the long-time Halo fans seem to really dislike the multiplayer, but I've been really enjoying it these past few months.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Halo 2 sold less than CE, is this accurate?

The figures I provided are NPD figures. The Xbox OG figures dated from mid-2007 after which new software sales had dried up. Neither figure includes PC retail sales, neither figure includes digital downloads. The Xbox 360 figures are current.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
Sounds like MS just wanted to give Halo 4 some kind of accolade. Regardless of how confusing it seems when first read.
 

Road

Member
The figures I provided are NPD figures. The Xbox OG figures dated from mid-2007 after which new software sales had dried up. Neither figure includes PC retail sales, neither figure includes digital downloads. The Xbox 360 figures are current.

Halo 2 was over 6.6 million as of 2008.

I think you looked at either some really outdated figures or some place that didn't combine all editions of the same game.
 

Izick

Member
It's probably the entry that I've played the most online multiplayer out of. I'm not sure if that's because I haven't been a huge Halo fan since CE or what.

I really didn't care for Halo 2, I know it's held in high regard but I just was very disappointed compared to CE. Halo 3 was a great game, but it just didn't have any legs for me after a while. Same goes for Reach.

Right now I'd say that I like 4's online the best, and CE still remains supreme when it comes to local/LAN multiplayer and single-player. Well, to be fair I'm not all the way through 4's single-player but it's not that great so far. Not bad, but not as exciting as the previous games.

That multiplayer though. I don't know what it is about it, but it just keeps me coming back for more, even though I don't really have any friends who play it all that much. It's just really fun to me.
 

allan-bh

Member
The figures I provided are NPD figures. The Xbox OG figures dated from mid-2007 after which new software sales had dried up. Neither figure includes PC retail sales, neither figure includes digital downloads. The Xbox 360 figures are current.

That's surprise for me, I always thought that Halo 2 outsold Halo CE in US.

Worldwide was revealed that Halo 2 sold more than 8 million and Halo CE more than 6 million.

halo03-580x435.jpg
 

Izick

Member
I'm really excited to see what Halo 5 looks like, mainly because of it being 60 FPS. I think that's going to be a nice step up from the current games. Definitely will change things.
 

Nutter

Member
Halo 2

November - 3.2 Million
December - ~1Million

It sold way more than 3.8 copies overall. That figure is likely missing the limited edition stuff and such.
 

Card Boy

Banned
Game is a disapointment and everyone else agrees.

Z3MWx.png


I'm lucky to find 1000 people in a playlist during my local primetime.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Halo 2 was over 6.6 million as of 2008.

I think you looked at either some really outdated figures or some place that didn't combine all editions of the same game.

That's surprise for me, I always thought that Halo 2 outsold Halo CE in US.

Worldwide was revealed that Halo 2 sold more than 8 million and Halo CE more than 6 million.

halo03-580x435.jpg

oh jesus i didn't combine the LE

Halo 2 was over 6.6 million as of 2008.

I think you looked at either some really outdated figures or some place that didn't combine all editions of the same game.

That's surprise for me, I always thought that Halo 2 outsold Halo CE in US.

Worldwide was revealed that Halo 2 sold more than 8 million and Halo CE more than 6 million.

halo03-580x435.jpg

oh jesus i didn't combine the LE

Combining LE and regular sales, I get 5.5 million for Halo 2 in the US (not sure where the 6.6 is coming from, it didn't sell 1.1 million between end of 2007 and 2008--might have been a retroactive number adjustment or something?)
 
Game is a disapointment and everyone else agrees.

Z3MWx.png


I'm lucky to find 1000 people in a playlist during my local primetime.

Graphs like this are meaningless. This is what it looks like for all games. Also, Halo 3 came out during a different time. Call of Duty has eaten up the majority of the Xbox user base.

There's also the issue of reporting active users in the past hour vs current active users. I don't think Halo 3 told you that.

Halo will probably never be as dominant as it once was, but it's still a great series.

Halo 4 will always be better than Halo 3 because Halo 3 doesn't have jet packs.
 

Izick

Member
Game is a disapointment and everyone else agrees.

http://img.acianetmedia.com/i/Z3MWx.png[IMG]

I'm lucky to find 1000 people in a playlist during my local primetime.[/QUOTE]

For what gametypes? For regular and big team Slayer there's well, well above that at almost all times. I can't speak to every single hour, but I think I've played the game's multiplayer at most hours of the day now.

Big team slayer always has thousands of people, and I haven't actually seen regular Slayer dip below 1000. Usually it's around 1800.

Also I'd like to see a graph like this compared to other console multiplayer games. Obviously there will always be a huge dip after the first few weeks, but after that it seems to be a major decline, even out, then another decline, then even out again.
 

Demon Ice

Banned
Hopefully 343i doesn't take this as a signal to not change anything for Halo 5. Halo 4 was a rather poor Halo game. The sales are not indicative of quality.
 

RedAssedApe

Banned
Confusing press release.

First Halo game that I sold back after beating the campaign because the multi-player was so horrid.
 

Nutter

Member
Graphs like this are meaningless. This is what it looks like for all games. Also, Halo 3 came out during a different time. Call of Duty has eaten up the majority of the Xbox user base.

There's also the issue of reporting active users in the past hour vs current active users. I don't think Halo 3 told you that.

Halo will probably never be as dominant as it once was, but it's still a great series.

Halo 4 will always be better than Halo 3 because Halo 3 doesn't have jet packs.

This argument is pretty damn stupid...

When they make a Halo game for people who enjoyed 2 and 3 and it still drops to number 7 within the first year, then yes Halo has lost its dominance.

Halo Reach and Halo 4 have received plenty of criticism by the fan-base for being not true to what Halo was about.
 
Confusing press release.

First Halo game that I sold back after beating the campaign because the multi-player was so horrid.
One of the first games I sold off in a loooooong time. Granted I would've done the same with Reach but I held hope something would happen to that game that by the time I was done with it there was no value to fetch worth putting the effort.
 

GrizzNKev

Banned
I wouldn't be surprised if they used these strangely specific sales conditions as an excuse to make Halo 5 just as terrible as 4.
 
I knew the series had gone off the deep end once I played Halo Reach. Abusable camping spots, jet packs, and copy and paste maps. I appreciated the Forge feature, but it just seems to have been an excuse for Bungie to not put any effort into the multiplayer maps as they were pretty much all the same green, hilly messes.
 
That's some really slimey spun PR bullshit right there. Kudos MS for making me read the OP like 4 times to fully understand it.

Ew, Halo 3 was one the biggest letdowns this gen for me.

I'm actually a fan of the series, but to be honest every Halo since 2 has been a let down for me. They promise the earth with each title and they never deliver it.
ODST is the only non-letdown and that's coz I went into it expecting glorified DLC and actually got a really emotional and excellently paced piece of gaming.
 
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