Today, the Blockbuster Game, a release from a major publisher that hopes to become an event that everyone’s attention and Game of the Year discussions, is an institution. It’s easy to see what such a game is in its current state, as it usually is about dads trying to connect with their previously neglected children or facial features prominent B-list actor or two in his cast. But in the early days of this trend, its definition would probably be: halo 3.
Developed by Bungie and released on September 25, 2007 for the Xbox 360, halo 3 was, in every sense of the word, a major problem for Microsoft and the wider games landscape at the time. With the sting of halo 2s cliffhanger ending from 2004 still fresh in players’ minds, whether Bungie could release a satisfying closer to its trilogy – a word that feels old now, as franchises don’t either go to a trilogy or go much further than that—was the big question then. It was a question that grew as Bungie put much of its marketing focus on multiplayer, and was noticeably coy about the game’s campaign until a handful of months before release. When it was finally revealed that the campaign was in fact a team between the series leader Master Chief and halo 2s deuteragonist the arbiter to save the earth from the covenant and the deluge, it felt like a real surprise.
Halo has always been a pretty popular franchise, but it was during the original Bungie period and with the release of halo 3 mainly, that the series was at its peak. halo 2 had a healthy life thanks to DLC, and being playable on 360 thanks to backwards compatibility, was a good incentive to get the console well ahead of the threequel’s release date. The excitement for the game and the desire to play it was so high that recording with fellow Xbox 360 to manhandle helped boost sales for that game. (It would be a lovely piece of serendipity when it turned out to manhandle was pretty good in itself.) Even after the game came out, Microsoft knew it had a golden goose and wouldn’t let you forget it. Equivalent to to manhandle, both Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST from 2009 had DLC Cards in front of halo 3 as an extra incentive to buy those games.
In addition to the beta, Microsoft and Bungie did their best to make the game’s release feel like a Big Deal, and not just with merchandise like limited edition consoles and controllers. Microsoft wanted to make sure the game was further marketed has already bought fans and spent over $40 million to make it happen. There were a large number of commercials that are memorable to this day, such as the “To believepromo with minifigures, the alternative reality game “Iris” and the commercial “Starry Night” that gained fame through the premiere once, during an ESPN game on December 2006.
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in the end, halo 3 would sell 5 million copies by the end of the year, become one of the best-selling games of 2007, and bring in more than a million Xbox Live players within the first 20 hours of release. It was such a success that movie managers blamed its release on Ben Stiller’s flop The Heartbreak Kid (seriously). It was the kind of hit – one that attracted fans and people who might not even know what this was for Halo even was – that games are not always these days, at least until Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2017. The fact that games are slowly but surely becoming more of a generally accepted cultural institution can be partly attributed to halo 3 and the efforts Microsoft has made to make it attractive to people beyond those who already drive or die for the franchise.
There have been games that surpassed halo 3 in terms of sales and critical reviews. Surely you could make the argument that it was on the low side of? The best games of 2007a year with some very big matches towards the end. But in terms of what? halo 3 As a cultural touchstone that came to serve as a benchmark for what makes a triple-A game stand the test of time and matter beyond its insular audience, Bungie’s closer trilogy is in a league of its own.
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