Halo: Reach Drums Up $200 Million In Day-One Sales

Halo: Reach hit global sales of over $200 million on its first day, Microsoft revealed in its Tokyo Game Show presentation -- a bigger day-one haul than Halo 3's $170 million, though the latter included only U.S. sales. The game's also been "breaking the franchise record" held by Halo 3 for Xbox Live play, Microsoft corporate vice president Phil Spencer said. The title, whose narrative concerns the last stand of Noble Team on the doomed planet Reach, is receiving widespread critical acclaim, too, currently holding a very favorable 92 rating on Metacritic. Reach is already two-thirds of the way toward Halo 3's $300 million week-one performance in September 2007. Microsoft went to lengths to assure Bungie's last game as a member of its organization would have maximum visibility with fans old and new, backing Reach's launch with its biggest game marketing campaign ever. Cowen analyst Doug Creutz said he expects Halo Reach to sell 3.6 million units in September alone. The title is expected to be a key force in the coming months for the U.S. game industry's efforts to oppose declines in its NPD monthly retail software sales results. The title also got its own Xbox 360 Slim hardware bundle, with a special silver console and matching branded controllers. A title with Reach's volume can be expected to drive sales of the recently-redesigned Slim Xbox 360 hardware, which has already begun to pick up sales steam over its rival, the PlayStation 3 Slim. And speaking of the new hardware, the launch hasn't been without its small hiccups, as reports surfaced that owners of the 4GB Xbox 360 Slim have had technical difficulties using Reach's co-op play mode. [UPDATE: Corrected that Halo 3's figures were U.S. only.]