The chief financial officer at Microsoft, Chris Liddell, voiced a huge understatement regarding the upcoming release of the Halo 3 game for the Xbox 360. His remarks were made during a conference call about Microsoft’s third quarter financial progress. "In terms of the direct impact, obviously it’s a first-party product so it’s reasonably profitable from our point of view, and it will be several hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue next year."
Did he say Halo 3 will be "reasonably profitable?" That’s like saying the Grand Canyon is a "reasonably large crevice." The profits generated by Halo 3 should prove to be a blockbuster hit for Microsoft and put its entertainment division in some nicely colored black ink.
The big question for Halo fans is whether the third installment of the franchise can live up to the hype and expectations of gamers. Bungie’s last effort, Halo 2, was criticized for its lackluster gameplay and lack of innovation. Bungie admitted as much and said in reference to Halo 2, "…we screwed up."
Liddell continued in his low-key statements by talking about the sales performance of the 360. "Sales during the quarter in terms of sell-in were around 500,000 consoles. Sell-through was higher than that, so our inventory levels did come down to normal levels. We did see a good inventory movement during the course of the quarter."
[via Games Industry]
