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Microsoft Announces new Halo and Release Schedule -

Let’s not pretend. No one has much information about Halo 3 at this point because Microsoft and Bungie have been pretty tight-lipped about the game that will debut on the Xbox 360. Microsoft has purposely set up the release date of their otherworldly, console defining powerhouse series to coincide with the release of the PS3 in early 2006. Since Halo 2 has had one of the largest debuts in video game history this is a very decisive and strategic move for Microsoft who is hoping to hike their 25% share of the video game market with a 2005 release of the Xbox 360 - the first of the next generation consoles beating Sony’s PS3 and Nintendo’s Revolution by a matter of months.

With Halo 2 selling more than 6.5 million copies, it will be a force to reckon with even matched up against the wildly anticipated PS3 console although my theory is that many of the people who will be heading to stores that day to pick up a copy of Halo 3 for their Xbox 360 will be won’t even be thinking about the PS3. And those sitting on the cold, early Spring sidewalk in front of their local EB or Gamestop to get their hands on what is sure to be an insufficient launch of PS3s won’t care that Halo 3 is sitting on the same shelves as the new console. So, this might not be as much of a commercial clash as the media is making it out to be. What we’ve seen with the co-existence of Microsoft’s Xbox and the PS2 during this generation is that Microsofties and Sony-ites can co-exist alongside one another and both can continue pouring bucket loads of their cash into both companies without affecting the other.

But this raises a very important questions about Microsoft’s own launch. If the MVP of Microsoft’s camp will be making a late appearance, what games will be available at the launch of the Xbox 360 to distract players form PS2 titles like SOCOM 3: US Navy Seals and other cross platform titles like Rockstar’s Warriors and Bully and 50 Cent: Bulletproof?

While this all seems like a puzzling problem, at this point it really isn’t. Microsoft will figure this out and so will Sony. In the end, we the players win because the added pressure on the companies to keep our attention will make them scratch eachother’s eyes out while we sit at home and enjoy the products of the their blood, sweat and tears.

We’ll keep you updated.

May 27, 2005

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