Halo 3

"It's the biggest launch in our history, bigger than Halo 3," said Tony Bartel, merchandising and marketing chief for videogame retailer GameStop, which has been taking pre-orders since April.

Read more: High Hopes for Tackling Terror [Voices] | In this article: Modern Warfare 2, Activision Blizzard Inc., GameStop, Dow Jones, and The Wall Street Journal

GamePro claims that "the amazingly deep multiplayer rivals" Halo 3"'s in terms of reach and scope." The game's story has received a considerable amount of acclaim from reviewers. GamePro notes that "the intense single-player campaign offers up an action packed experience that features a tremendously compelling narrative; there are moments in the game that will send chills down your spine."

Read more: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare | In this article: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Xbox 360, Infinity Ward, USMC, Call of Duty, and PlayStation 3

" was due more to the film's poor reception, other analysts believed that "the audience on "Halo 3' is the 18-to-34 demographic, similar to what you'd see in cinemas" and that this led to a decrease in receipts. Later research suggested that the "Halo 3 players still watched the same amount of television and movies, regardless of the time they spent playing the game.

Read more: Halo 3 | In this article: Halo 2, Covenant, Arbiter, Bungie, Master Chief, Flood, Xbox 360, and Halo: Combat Evolved

"Arbiter". In an interview with MTV, Halo developer Bungie's content manager Frank O'Connor said that the inclusion of the Arbiter as a playable character in Halo 2 was supposed to be a "secret on the scale of a Shyamalan plot twist" and explains that Bungie was able to keep the public uninformed about this until the game's release, to the point that O'Connor never even considered including it on the weekly development updates posted at Bungie's webpage. O'Connor also stated that Bungie "had some other things that were secrets within secrets" and claimed that there was material related to the Arbiter that was kept secret during the development of Halo 3 because "There is an aspect of the Arbiter's character that is still secret to this day and will remain so for a good reason."

Read more: Arbiter (Halo) | In this article: Arbiter, Halo 2, Halo: Combat Evolved, Elite, Bungie, Master Chief, Keith David, and Halo Wars

Interviewed about Cortana in Halo 3, Taylor said that "There's a lot more drama and a lot less technical jargon this time around. I actually just finished a couple of lines that nearly had me in tears."

Read more: Cortana | In this article: Cortana, Halo 2, Master Chief, Bungie, Covenant, Halo: Combat Evolved, and Flood

Game Informer concurred, saying that "there's nothing like hearing Halo's signature 'da-da-da-duuum' as you rush into a squad of Brutes ."

Read more: Halo 3 Original Soundtrack | In this article: Martin O'Donnell, Halo 2, Halo 3 Original Soundtrack, Bungie, Michael Salvatori, Master Chief, Cortana, Halo: Combat Evolved, and X-Play

"The industry managed a modest increase over September 2008, and generated the second bestselling September on record after 2007 when Halo 3 released and sold over 3 million copies that month," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a press email.

Read more: September Video Game Revenue Rebounds, PS3 Sales Surge (PC World) | In this article: Revenue, PS3, Halo 3: ODST, The Beatles: Rock Band, Xbox 360, Xbox, Nintendo, Madden NFL 10, and Guitar Hero 5

"Halo 3 certainly impacted the industry two years ago when it was launched, and this year, Halo 3: ODST realized impressive sales making it the 6th best-selling SKU launch of all time," said Frazier.

Read more: September Video Game Revenue Rebounds, PS3 Sales Surge (PC World) | In this article: Revenue, PS3, Halo 3: ODST, The Beatles: Rock Band, Xbox 360, Xbox, Nintendo, Madden NFL 10, and Guitar Hero 5

"The industry managed a modest increase over September 2008, and generated the second bestselling September on record after 2007 when Halo 3 released and sold over 3 million copies that month," wrote NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a note accompanying her monthly report. "On a unit sales basis, the industry was flat. The increase in revenues is driven by a rise in average retail prices in all categories with the exception of console hardware in which the average retail price decreased 8 percent from last September."

Read more: PS3 finally wins a month | In this article: PS3, Sony, Microsoft, Wii, NPD, Nintendo, Xbox, Revenue, and Xbox 360

"Halo 3 certainly impacted the industry two years ago (Sep'07) when it was launched, and this year, Halo 3: ODST realized impressive sales making it the 6th best-selling SKU launch of all time," she says.

Read more: Halo 3: ODST Beats Out Madden, Mario & Marvel To Win September [Npd] | In this article: Halo 3: ODST, Madden NFL 10, The Beatles: Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3