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- Guardian Unlimited
- Tuesday September 25 2007
British video game fans were today preparing for what experts said would be the biggest launch in entertainment history.
The latest instalment in the popular Halo games franchise hits the UK's high streets at midnight after months of hype and anticipation among gamers.
Microsoft, the game's producers, claim it is on course to make more than £60m in just 24 hours, which would make it the fastest-selling video game of all time.
Halo 3 follows the adventures of a superhuman soldier who is on a mission to defeat alien invaders.
The final instalment in the series has been in development for three years, costing an estimated $60m (£29.8m) to produce. Microsoft's investment looks set to pay off, with more than 1 million copies of the £40 game already ordered around the world.
Excitement was high at the US launch last night, with hundreds of gamers crowding outside shops.
In Britain, tonight's proceedings will kick off with a launch party at London's iMax cinema, hosted by the US musician Pharrell Williams. Later, more than 1,000 shops around the country will open to satisfy demand for the game.
Halo has become a critical weapon for Microsoft in its attempt to overtake Sony's PlayStation as the premier name in computer games.
The franchise is exclusively available for its Xbox games console, which recently lost its position as the country's most popular next generation games machines to Nintendo's Wii.
A Microsoft spokesman yesterday admitted that Halo 3's success was vital to the company's performance over the important Christmas period.
"This is a critical holiday in terms of winning the next generation console fight versus our competition, and nobody has anything to go up and match Halo," Shane Kim, the vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, said.
