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Viewed as one of the most anticipated games of all time and arguably the greatest game on the Xbox, Halo 2 comes in as the true killer app it was expected to be. Stacking up a record breaking 2 million plus copies preordered, Halo 2 shattered the previous record set by the Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker which had a little over 600,000 copies preordered. The difference as you can see is great. Empire Arcadia was definitely going to be apart of this event as they set a launch party at Neutral Grounds, and a promotional street team to be at Halo 2 launch spots such as Game Stop and Toys R' Us. Handing out flyers to promote the gathering at Neutral Grounds for the Halo 2 launch the Empire set up prop boxes and staff at Neutral Grounds provided the equipment and space to host this party.
"Halo 2 sold through 2.4 million units in its first 24 hours of North American release, Microsoft announced today. That adds up to $125 million in gross receipts, giving Bungie's latest Xbox project a place in the record books for both games and the entertainment industry at large.
To pull a couple of examples from the movie business, the all-time record for a movie's opening weekend belongs to Spider-Man 2, which grossed almost $115 million. Pixar's The Incredibles, launched this past weekend, drew a $70 million gross in its first three days. Shrek 2 owns the record for the highest single-day gross, drawing $44 million on May 22, 2004.
It's harder to judge the all-time first-day sales records for videogames, since most of that data is either proprietary or poorly recorded. However, NPD Group data reckons Super Mario 64 the best-selling game of all time, with a $308 million gross over its life to date. The original Halo has mustered only $141 million in sales to date, meaning the sequel may have already broken its record today.
This fall's other top-selling release, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, hasn't yet had its American sales figures publicly trumpeted yet. It broke one million units sold in the United Kingdom alone in its first nine days of release, however, which represents gross receipts of 35 million pounds (almost $65 million).
So far, this year's biggest seller is Madden NFL 2005, with more than four million units sold across multiple platforms. However, either Halo 2 or San Andreas looks prepped to top the charts once 2004 is over and done with."
Source of information: 1 up.com
Getting some grub together and setting up the games, brought some old and new guest to Neutral Grounds, to get a play at this masterpiece game on the Xbox. Lord Syn an old school member of Empire Arcadia finally showed himself to get his hands dirty and blow off the rust of his former glory days as a first person shooter master. Hip Hop artist Jean Grae made her first appearance at an Empire Arcadia event. Arriving with her manager Colin Afflick, Ruddy, Lyric and company they got hands on experience with Halo 2, got a bit to eat and got their fall Empire hood from Triforce. After a brief time they took a group picture with many Empire members and took their leave.
A Halo 2 frag fest broke out illustrating one of the games finest points which was the death match. Showing all types of diverse game play and game mechanics that Halo 2 had to offer it brought up a good showing for the game. Sign up for the tournament set for the following Friday fell through and was cancelled. A major tournament for the game is in works by the Empire in Neutral Grounds sometime in late December. Stay tuned.
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