The pipes don’t lie. Last week, after the ballyhooed release of Halo 3 for the Xbox 360, I expressed deep skepticism that the game would do much for the 360’s fortunes. Of course it would sell well with existing 360 owners, but would it help Microsoft (MSFT) regain the lead in the next-gen console race, as they hoped it would?
My skepticism deepened even further after Om sent me a fascinating press release from broadband solutions provider Sandvine. Because the thing is, while Halo 3 has already sold several million copies, how many of those players are people who just bought the 360, to play the final installment of the series? Sandvine sampled the traffic of Xbox Live, and while that increased 100 percent to 200 percent after the game went on sale, “The number of hosts (gamers) remained unchanged from before Halo 3’s release,” the release read, “implying that existing Xbox Live gamers most likely accounted for the additional bandwidth consumption, as opposed to new gamers.” (emphasis mine.)
So did that mean there was no discernible uptick of new Xbox 360 owners after Halo 3 went on sale?
“We cannot draw the direct conclusion,” Sandvine’s Tanieu Tan wrote when I emailed him that question. “We do not track the number of consoles or whether the number of hosts are new or existing hosts. However, the data can suggest that the additional Xbox Live bandwidth usage can be attributed to existing users since we did not see an increase in the number of users. This was not the case when we looked at bandwidth and hosts after the release of Gears of War, which seemed to cause an increase in users as well as bandwidth.” Gears of War was last year’s 360 hit. “On a qualitative assessment, perhaps, this is the result of Halo 3 being part of the Halo series, thus appealing to existing Halo players,” Tan wrote.
Then again, maybe that just means new 360 owners are still on the single-player campaign, which doesn’t require logging into Xbox Live. Maybe, but most reviewers say the campaign only takes between 10 and 15 hours to complete. On the hardware tracking side, VGChartz reports a slight rise in 360 sales, but not much.
In any case, after weeks of rumors, the official news is in: Microsoft and Halo creator Bungie are more or less parting ways. Even hardcore 360 gamers seem to be recovering from their drunken bout of unquestioning Halo love. How do I know? Because right now, one of the most popular viral
videos is a foul-mouthed but hilarious anti-Halo 3 rant — perfect viewing after you’ve left the office for the weekend.
Image credit: Halo 3.com. LOL Halo embellishment by WJA.
Funny u forgot to mention the 1 week 300million dollars in sales Halo3 just pulled off. There is alot of speculation in this article without drawing or making any substantial conclusions. I’m not sure whats the point????
@Monal:
No point, just the anti-MSFT propaganda that Om has influenced his entire team to spread. F*ck I might as well stop coming here!
Biased GOOG/AAPL ass-licking morons.
who do u think u are sighting xbox360 sales saying they went up but not by much vghcarz be damned what does vgchartz know? this is real business you are talking about not a guessing game. xbox360 sales were amazing in my hometown the eve of halo launch and I know they were good all over
the point of this post is?
xbox live is without a doubt the best online gaming service out of any of the games consoles and new users will not have got into it straight away. They are most likely moving onto other games like you do when you have a new console.
If these players were not already halo players why would they jump online to play the mp. I have to say I am going to play it when the hype has died down and I am not even interested in the MP. COD4 MP is where it is at.
This household has just acquired an Xbox 360.
This box has yet to connect to any network. I don’t feel like running wire to the TV room, and I don’t feel like paying $100 for a wireless connection, especially compared to the fact that Wii and PS3 have WiFi already built in. I can’t say that I’m surprised.
This article is so poor I don’t even know where to start. Seriously, Om, this needs to stop.
Ignoring the obvious of Halo 3’s sales, looking at the metric of Xbox Live for increased market share for the console itself is pretty foolish. Instead of looking at new console sales and asking the question, despite the massive sales of the game, you didn’t think to ask the tough question as to why. Now that would have made a better article.
Instead, this reads like a substandard technology blog with a writer who can’t muster together coherent thoughts.
I agree with DarrenStuart. Chances are, most people who bought and play Halo 3 are existing fans….not new 360 gamers.
If you wrote this kind of article about other pieces of technology bundled with straw-man points, then GigaOM would be a terrible blog to read.
I’m surprised you haven’t been advised to stop writing about XBOX 360 not selling more consoles than the Wii.
Really though…stop hatin.
You guys post the most pointless and poorly thought out anti-MSFT crap. It’s like that part of your brain that hates Microsoft only has a few active cells to generate your rant. Seriously, even you make the point in your article that nothing you say here proves a damn thing.
Where are your articles on how the much ballyhooed Lair fell flat on the PS3? Or how Home is a non-entity? Nowhere, because your coverage on this topic is so vlatantly based and lacking in any shred of credibility.
Give it a rest already.
lol i can just imagine James typing away on Google for the following search, “‘xbox 360′, lags, sales, down, failure, defective, disappoint”
The coverage of the xbox360 on this site is just childish. I don’t even play games and this stuff comes off as obvious trolling.
I’m unsubscribing from the RSS feed. I’ll check back in a few months to see if things have gotten any better.
for whatever it’s worth, I’m another reader who bought the 360 for Halo 3 and have yet to connect the device to the network.
for whatever it’s worth, I’m another reader who bought the 360 for Halo 3 and have yet to connect the device to the network.
Wrong – sales did pick up!!!
Sales of the Xbox 360 in Japan trebled, in Australia doubled, and in the UK doubled the week Halo 3 was released.
No idea about the USA etc…
Keep up the good work, cough….
The comments from the enraged Xbox junkies just made my day.
Obviously Xbox Live traffic is the definitive metric for Halo 3 selling Xboxes. Come on James, did you get this idea from a PS3 fanboy forum?
I really like the rest of the articles on GigaOm, but I can’t read it anymore. Just one of James’ rabid fanboy articles makes my blood boil.
@Kevin:
I really think James is really being made the scapegoat here and the real culprit is the uber-biased Om. I have already started hating this blog for the senseless MSFT hate — oh yes Om just wants the anti-msft crowd to read his blog — so be it.
He should realize that Techcrunch, for example, with all its weaknesses, is still VERY fair and hence the stellar growth of Techcrunch. Gigaom, will fade into dust if Om carries this Apple/Google propaganda! Moronish, at best!
“senseless MSFT hate”
Skepticism is not at all the same as hate. As I mentioned last week, I was one of the first non-gamer writers to strongly praise MSFT’s Xbox initiative:
http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/08/29/xbox/index.html
And I’m a Halo fan, too, I still play the first game in multiplayer– look for me as “CnA-James” (yeah, ahem, I was even in a clan for awhile.)
But here’s the thing to understand: GigaOM.com is not a gamer blog. It’s a blog that tracks the business side of the Internet/tech industry. So writing for GigaOM, I’m really not interested in whether fans love Halo 3 (except as that buzz impacts overall market share, or in this case, apparently doesn’t), and I’m really not interested if most existing 360 owners bought a copy. I’m interested in how this game expands the 360’s market, how it affects the console market overall, and how it affects Microsoft’s position in that competition.
And once again, on those three questions, the available evidence so far leaves me deeply skeptical that it’s doing much of anything. Except consign the 360 to niche status.
Shameless attempt by GigaOM to incite Halo fans to increase traffic to their web page to bring advertising dollars.
WJA – The first rules of holes is when you’re in one, quit digging.
This article simply critiquing 360’s push to lead in the next-gen by market share. Why is everyone suddenly alleging it to be bias against Microsoft? That alone is a irrelevant claim.
$300m worth of sales in one week-shockingly impressive, yet, what will the 360 have to offer after this in comparison to the PS3? When Sony starts flexing its muscle [by releasing superior games], that status quo is what this article foreshadows.
Funny how all the commentators become pundits..
name a ps3 game on the horizon that could do 300 million in sales in a week?? When Sony’s “superior” games finally come one day in the next decade at this rate we’ll be onto the next generation . Then again Sony did state the ps3 is on a “10 year plan” so I guess ps3 fans should be reassured.
damn. when fanboys attack.
WJA – My only real disappointment in the article is that you are lacking sources. Your trying to show a lack of growth in the 360’s market share by quoting a broadband solutions provider. They only measure bandwidth usage, not console owners or the numbers of accounts on xbox live. And as far as sales, where does vgchartz get their data? You really need to learn to research better. Try actually going to and quoting more than one source for sales data.
Om – spend some bucks and buy some real sales data from some an actual respected market research firm like npd.com for example.
Vgchartz’s data holds up well against NPD (which is way less transparent and web-friendly with their research), and as stated above, Sandvine tracked total usage and unique users.
It’s a shame that, going by the comments, this blog seems to have been put on some “enemies” list by some thirteen year old Xbot on TeamXbox or GameFAQs.
Because for once WJA’s point is a valid one. It’s at least a plausible reading of the figures, considering the exact same thing happened with Halo 2. It sold to virtually all of the available fanbase but didn’t reach outside of that (driving hardware sales in any significant way) at all.
GTA, The Sims and Wii Sports are franchises that have played to a wider audience (and things like Gran Turismo/PGR/Forza, and the EA Sports franchises, have appealed to specific audiences outside of gaming). As great as Halo is, it doesn’t fulfil this kind of role, even when gifted with a conspicuous, Hollywood-style marketing push.
One thing when Gears of war came out the XBOX 360 was in its infancy and GOW was its first flagship title hence the reason the sales of xbox 360 was significant
As the 360 is fairly well established already now release of another flagship title isnt likely to increase the user base significantly due to the fact that a lot of people have allready got one
well a mixed bag really. Halo 3 was ok, but having completed the game in a mere 9 1/2 hours (normal level) i was a bit pissed off. However, the online content more than extends the lifespan of halo 3, and having played many games online, halo 3 is totally fantastic!!!!
Though your constant links from the BBC News site that you have been getting at GigaOM might be giving you hits and credibility, linking to a site like VGChartz, who are known to skew figures to suit their needs, then quietly changing them a few weeks later.
Fact is, sales week on week doubled when Halo 3 was released.
Im in the UK and you can clearly see Halo 3 has caused the sale of more xbox 360s from sites such as Amazon and Play etc that show the top sellers. The console wasnt even in the top twenty before Halos release and its now in the top 5. Plus im sure not everyone who has bought a new console has connected to live yet. Totally agree with the other comments in that Xbox Live is the best service on all consoles. I have tried them all.
Well the whole article is wrong from the get go, I bought my 360 soon after release for the sole purpose of playing halo 3 when it was eventually released, as did several people i know. Other games along the way have been good, but halo 3 has driven 360 hardware sales from day one :P
We’ve done our own independent research and found actually the opposite. Check it out here: http://www.ccers.tv/channel_checkers_tv/2007/10/episode-2-video.html
Hmmm, after carefully reading through this article and the comments that followed, I decided to do some research myself. Working for a data warehousing firm that does the accounting for firms like Best Buy, Circuit City, Gamestop to name a few, I decided to dig into our databases and query it for any relevant information that would indicate the increases in the sales. This is what came up, the sales of Halo3 are definitely high, but considering the sales of the XBOX 360 since its date of release, the numbers werent significantly higher, indicating that the buyers were most likely owners of a 360, still not satisfied realising that it wouldnt satisy you fagboys either, I decided to do a little bit more research. I checked for the number of sales of the 360 within the last 2 months to account for any anticipatory sales, the figure when compared with that of last years for the same period indicated an increase by 1%, not significant, factoring that the information for the year before last was 2% more than this years. This only indicates one thing, despite however much I didnt want to face it….Om is right….lets face it at the end of the day such news is disheartening, but its all good knowing that we will all go back home turn on our PS3’s and enjoy long hours of warhawk on our PS3 which is far from outdated with redundant technologies….oh wait, I forgot, you are all XBOTS, damn no warhawk for you….sucks.
p.s I didnt mispell fagboys……enjoy
I’d like to have an opinion about the game but I abandoned the Xbox format when the third one died on me within 14 months.
Irrespective of opinion towards Microsoft, there is no excuse for shoddy manufacture and design.
So, considering the company put over a billion bucks aside as a contingency for similar unit failures, I wonder how much of this little increase are 1-4-1 replacements?
Week on week is a comparison. What is the comparison to? Last week? Last year? So whatever option you choose it will show what you want it to show.
“My friends and I all bought 360’s” – WOW; 5 of my friends bought HALO 3 bought no new consoles. So no new console sales here.
Don’t trash the whole article as he’s reporting on the business side hype NOT playability.
Thanks to the BBC for the link.
Amazing how the Xbox fanboys get so riled when someone makes a comment about how the release of a game doesn’t significantly raise sales of their favourite console.
Get a life people. No one is saying your console is no good, no one is saying the game is no good, no one is saying xbox live is no good. Why get so defensive about an article that just basically says that Halo 3’s release has not significantly raised the number of Xbox 360s being sold?
This doesn’t take in to account the fact that i bought a 360 2 years ago for halo 3. just to make sure I had one.
It seems that Halo 3 spurred more consoles sold in Canada: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/neowin-gamers/~3/171365472/npd-group-canada-halo-3-spurs-xbox-360-sales-in-canada
Wagner James Au should stop speculating based on hot air – looks like the shipment numbers just in have proven him completely wrong – http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=17836
The question is – will he actually do the right thing and post a correction?