Grand Theft Auto IV has sold $500M worth of games in its first week of release. For comparison, GTA IV sold more copies in one day (3,600,000) than HALO 3 sold in its first week (3,300,000). That figures to a $500M first week for GTA IV compared to HALO 3's $300M.

The numbers are staggering for the dual platform GTA IV which was released in a PS3 and XBOX 360 format.

We know 6,000,000 copies of GTA IV were sold in the first week. VG Charts estimates that the XBOX 360 version sold 3.3M units versus 2.6M copies for the PS3 version. Those are pretty close figures considering that the XBOX 360 has sold 6M more consoles than the PS3. Evidentially and not surprisingly, PS3 owners are loyal to the GTA series.

And is Microsoft regretting not expanding the HALO universe to other platforms?

Perhaps the development costs of making a version of HALO 3 for the PS3 wasn't feasible. Okay.

But what about say Halo 2 on the PS2? There are an estimated 50M PS2 consoles out there right now compared to just 17M original XBOX consoles.

Obviously, there was a massive install base. After they see GTA's numbers, is Microsoft regretting making HALO exclusive to the XBOX family?

Edit: Less than 24 hours after I wrote this story, another friend's Elite bites the dust. Sorry doughgeek. 35 in 50 gamers have failed consoles.

While 50 gamers is a small sample size for Microsoft, it's the majority of my gaming friends.

According to my friend's list, 34 of 50 gamers reported that their XBOX 360's have failed since purchase.  That's 68% for those of you scoring at home.  That's much higher than the 16% reported last week and 30% reported by retailers in mid-2007.

I posed the question to the 90 gamers on my friends list three weeks ago after my XBOX 360 Elite failed.  50 out of 90 gamers responded and 34 of them said that they have had to send off their XBOX 360 for repair or replacement at least once.

In one case, someone had to send their system to Microsoft 7 times for repair.  Another person reported that her husband also had to send off his system for repair as well.  There were several cases of people having to send off their console multiple times.

I am a heavy user.  My XBOX 360 is in use 10-25 hours a week.  I suspect that most of the gamers on my friends list are also heavy users.  However, the failure rate from my perspective is outrageous.

Is the XBOX 360 supposed to be an appliance or a gadget?

Am I supposed to look past these extremely high failure rates in my social sphere?

40 gamers did not respond to my questionnaire that was sent to their XBOX Live message inbox.  Even if they all said that they have not had to replace or repair their console, 38% of my friends list will have had failed XBOX 360's. 

XBOX 360 and XBOX Live is about being social.  It's about communities of gamers.  In my community, upwards of 60% of gamers have experienced a failed XBOX 360 in response to my survey.

I get that 50 gamers is a small sample. But, 50 friends is a good amount of friends and I've met all but about 10 people on my friends list.

Oh, I'm not on my friends list.  I've owned a Core, Premium, and Elite system.  They've all failed in 6-12 months.

What can we do? 

At least Microsoft is handling the situation by offering extended warranties and repairing consoles at no charge.  But, it's hard to be an XBOX evangelist with these high failure rates.

I'm sending in my XBOX 360 Elite back to Microsoft for it to be repaired. My optical drive has gone out. My consoles acts as if it has no disc in the disc drive.

How prominent is this problem? Microsoft has a knowledge base article that deals with the error --- so I'm not the only one who has this problem. Anyone else having troubles with your disc drive?

My drive didn't totally go out at once. My drive started to fail in early November after the release of Call of Duty 4. For some reason, CoD4 would fail to boot about 50% of the time. Other games played fine. By early January, Halo 3 and CoD4 would fail to boot 90% of the time. Rock Band (and a few other games) would play just fine. By late January, 99% of the time all discs would not work even my trusty Rock Band disc.

I must have tried two dozen "tricks" to try to get my discs to boot. All of them have quit working. With no more tricks up my sleeve, I called Microsoft. After 10 minutes on the phone, Microsoft issued a repair order. I should have another Elite coming back to me in no longer than 3 weeks (1 week for me to get the empty shipping box - 2 weeks for Microsoft to repair the box and send me a replacement).

This will be my 4th XBOX 360 console.

Press Release:

For Release 8 a.m. PDT

Oct. 5, 2007

Bungie Studios Becomes Privately Held Independent Company

Bungie and Microsoft forge new long-term relationship.

KIRKLAND, Wash. — Oct. 5, 2007 — Bungie and Microsoft Corp. today announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of Microsoft’s “Halo” franchise, to become a privately held independent company, Bungie, LLC, in which Microsoft will hold a minority equity interest. As part of this transaction, Bungie and Microsoft have forged a deep and long-term development and publishing relationship focused on the continued success of the “Halo” franchise. It is also the intent of both parties to expand their partnership to include new IP created and owned by Bungie.

Bungie’s critically acclaimed Xbox 360® exclusive “Halo 3” achieved $300 million in global sales in its first week. Released on Tuesday, Sept. 25, “Halo 3” is the fastest-selling video game ever and already one of the most successful entertainment properties in history.

“This exciting evolution of our relationship with Microsoft will enable us to expand both creatively and organizationally in our mission to create world-class games,” said Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie. “We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft’s platforms; we greatly value our mutually prosperous relationship with our publisher, Microsoft Game Studios, and we look forward to continuing that affiliation through ‘Halo’ and beyond.”

“Working with Microsoft was great for us, it allowed us to grow as a team and make the ambitious, blockbuster games we all wanted to work on. And they will continue to be a great partner. But Bungie is like a shark. We have to keep moving to survive. We have to continually test ourselves, or we might as well be dolphins. Or manatees,” said Jason Jones, Bungie founder and partner.

Bungie’s management retained the services of Don Leeds, senior managing director of B-Hive Global, LLC, to assist in the structuring of the deal and negotiating on their behalf. Bungie will remain in Kirkland, Washington, and is always looking to hire excellent talent.

Mitch Gitelman posted today was the official last day of employment for those who had not moved on to other positions. About half of the team has found positions at Microsoft game studios. It is always sad to see a studio close, especially one like FASA.

Shadowrun forums

A ton of news smacked us in the face last night as Microsoft held their E3 presentation.  They are hyping this holiday season as the "greatest holiday lineup in video game history."  It's hard to quantify "greatest" so I'm sure they'll achieve that goal.

So what makes this holiday season so big?

Gears of Wars is headed to the PC and will run DirectX 10 and support Games for Windows - Live.  I have a feeling my 8800 GTX is going to get a workout.  GoW PC ships with five new campaign chapters, a new multiplayer gametype, new maps, new achievements, and a new game editor. 

A new HALO-themed XBOX 360 with HDMI output and themed accessories is going to roll out later this year.  It includes an exclusive HALO 3 dashboard theme and gamer pics.  The console is "Spartan green" colored with shiney gold accents (kind of like Master Chief's armor) and will ship in September.

Speaking of HALO, a ton of HALO media has been released.  My favorite:  a live action short film.  Bungie.net has a ton of new videos and screenshots.

Unreal Engine 3 will utilize Games for Windows - Live.  This should encourage more developers to make games with GfWL functionality (we've ONLY got TWO GfWL titles right now).

Marathon: Durandal his XBOX Live Arcade.  This will be Bungie's first IP on the Arcade.  Sonic the Hedgehog is NOW available as an XBOX Live Arcade download. 

Major franchise titles will be launched this year including:  Call of Duty 4, Grand Theft Auto IV, Guitar Hero III, HALO 3, Madden NFL 08, Project Gotham Racing 4 and Splinter Cell Conviction.  But other first title games will be launched as well including Assassin's Creed, BioShock, and Mass Effect. 

Click "read more" for a complete listing of the games rolling out this holiday season for Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade, and Games for Windows Live:

I'm typing this as I'm watching Microsoft's E3 presentation.

The high school kids playing the HALO music was cool.

Peter Moore says this will be the biggest holiday season of all time for them. All games shown tonight launch this year.

Adults playing Rock Band didn't blow me away. Was kind of cool. Was kind of lame.

XBOX 360 sales figures are impressive. The Wii is (barely) out selling the XBOX 360 right now. However,

Total consoles sold (in millions)
5.6 - 360
2.8 - Wii
1.4 - PS3

Total since launch of Wii and PS3
2.7 - 360
2.8 - Wii
1.4 - PS3

XBOX 360 has sold more games since the launch of Wii and PS3 than SONY and Nintendo combined.