Halo 3 Trial Download - What You Don’t Remember…

Halo 3 Trial Download - What You Don’t Remember!

The release of Halo 3 was wildly anticipated, as the game was the third in the original trilogy of the Halo series. As a result the Halo 3 trial download was one of the most downloaded game demos in the history of the Xbox 360. What many people don’t remember is Halo 3 trial download helped make another game – Crackdown.

What does the Halo 3 trial download have to do with another game?  It has a lot to do with the distribution and marketing effort for a game that was originally planned to release on the Xbox system.  Microsoft had become worried that Crackdown wouldn’t sell well.  So they used a marketing gimmick – bundle Crackdown with an access code to the Halo 3 trial download.  It worked to the tune of Crackdown selling 1.5 million copies in the first six months of release.  Those aren’t Halo 3 numbers – which sold 8.1 million copies in just over a year – but for a lesser-known game that’s terrific.

Microsoft had turned to the Halo 3 trial download because of poor opinions given to the game by the playtesters.  They found the nonlinear nature of the game to be confusing, often leaving them wondering what it was they were supposed to do next. As a result the powers that be knew that something had to be done or the game would be a dud. It may seem shady at first to try to force sales of a game that’s expected to be unpopular, but in retrospect people love the game and it was a good thing that they were able to find out about it.

In crackdown, including the version bundled with the Halo 3 trial download, people play as an agent who are assigned to defeat the kingpins, or leaders, of various gangs.  To do this they utilize various superhuman powers such as super strength and super agility.  To gain these powers players would have to accumulate experience by defeating enemies who then release experience orbs. The clever part of the system was that the orbs released depended on the manner in which the agent killed the enemy.  For example a firearms orb would appear if the enemy was killed with a gun.

So while at first blush this game bundled with the Halo 3 trail download seems to be nothing but a veiled marketing gimmick, in reality it exposed gamers to an exciting gameplay world.

Frag Carefully,
Michael

P.S. Want More Halo 3 Goodies? Then check this out!
http://hal0.biz/goods

P.S.S. I’ll be posting often, so come back and read some more Halo goodness!