Harsh headline, not quite as harsh article. Some points:

- Even if they won't all get their copy Day 1, it isn't a Worthless Record. People pre-order the game because they want it bad. What does this mean? It shows they have garnered a lot of interest and that a lot of people are going to buy this game.
- I don't know where you are pre-ordering your games, but at my local EB I've collected pre-orders without too much trouble. Even if you don't get it day one, you take usually priority over some random guy off the street looking for a copy of Halo.
- Lots of games have collectors blah blah editions. Halo 3 is no different. Its overpriced, but there's two subpoints here: One, you get lots of additional content, and a pretty cool Spartan helmet. Two, nobody has you pinned to the wall with a knife at your throat. Buy the regular one.
- As for the promotional campaign, lots of companies do this. Is there something bad about the giveaway? They're giving away 1000 copies of Halo 3, and somebody gets a car. But not just a car, a custom painted car with Halo as the theme. Unusual, somewhat. Cool, yes.

If that is the most terrible evil the "Hype Machine" unleashes on the world, I think we're pretty safe.

Way to win the unnecessarily unprofessional column title of the day award.

Massive preorders only just proves the argument that we live by trends and consumption too much. Anyone not being able to live without a game from day 1, possibly waiting a week longer, is too trend-struck.

From business perspective however, the preordering also has a nice corporate value. With 1 million pre-orders in the book, you can start measuring the economy, one of the reasons why subscription gaming has become a big industry. Its simply much easier to gain a steady economy, where other publishers are often struck on slow initial sales and eventually falter through lack of branding and erratic sales.

We'll see more preordering records and more subscription gaming, its the only way forward.

My wife and I have spent many an hour guiding Master Chief through his heroics in Halo. Shooting Elites and laughing at what some of the grunts have to say. Being enthralled at the cut scene prior to having chills run down our spine as we met the flood for the first time.
Halo 2 was just as exciting and entertaining as we worked up the ladder from easy to Heroic only to discover the twist H2 has for the hardest level "Legendary" where we both had to stay alive in order to pursue the final Boss Brute.
We have played both over and over again.
The cost of the games and console was insignificant to the hours of entertainment we experienced as we made our way to the end. As the Halo trilogy enters it's last leg we wait to have our eyes treated to outstanding graphics as well as hearing the music scores, yes scores as it is beautifully conducted and assembled, exceeding that of most movies I've seen. The music is amazing as it builds you're sense of awareness while driving the needed adrenaline through you're veins to react to the situation at hand. It is truly euphoric at times as you take in the scenery that is masterful in it's expanse and detail.
My take is it's money well spent for the Legendary Edition on the outside chance it will assist in the series going beyond a trilogy.
For less than a night of ambiance with a 5 star restaurant we can have numerous nights of sensory indulgence. Perhaps the author should visit Halo3.com, select media then video and view the “behind the making of Halo 3” video to see if “E” Dorian and it's orchestral accompaniment doesn't send a chill through him. If not, then quickly find a pin and probe you're arm. I'm certain you'll experience no pain.

Yeah this article was pretty lousy. Why was it allowed to be posted here at Toms?

here is the dumb butt quote of the day--
"That achievement would mean so much more if industry retailers honored pre-orders."

I have never had trouble getting a pre-ordered game, and I've been pre-ordering and buying games for many years at many different stores.... Sounds like you are shopping a bad store, try something else lol...... Non of my friends have ever had trouble pre-ordering either. You speak as though this is a widespread problem, but really I think you stand alone on that issue... Perhaps you should actually research things before sputtering out your ignorant opinions as factual.

Yeah Halo 3 is overhyped, heck I got bored of the halo series after part 1, but lots of people love this game, and will surely enjoy Halo 3 quite a bit. There is nothing wrong with people being willing to spend more for a collectors edition, people do it all the time for big name games. And there is nothing wrong with M$ promoting there game, even if it is over the top. They need to do what is best for the company, and if they think this will boost sales, then more power to em.

I hate HALO, but I hate this article even more. What good does this bias, and non factual rambling serve the community here? >=(

I wonder if Tom's will allow the KKK to start posting on here, now that hate articles are allowed. Halo 3 is set to become the best selling game of all time, and they post an article like this?. This guy is obviously into PS3 worship.

@Gamebro

Thanks for the comment. I guess I should respond.

Gamebro, let me understand the basis of your argument. You're saying that because you and the people you know have never had an issue with pre-orders that problems with pre-orders don't exist?
I'm glad that you've never experienced any problems, but that doesn't mean they don't exist for other people. In fact, there have been a lot of issues, especially with the PS3 and Wii launches last year, where people in the States had pre-orders their consoles only to get e-mails saying, "sorry, we ran out." Similar issues have happened with major titles this year.

Why? Well, for one thing a lot of retailers will take more pre-orders than the number of actual items they have in stock. It sounds silly, of course -- why would you sell something that you didn't have? But a lot of these stores, from Amazon to Wal-Mart to Best Buy -- get paid up front for a pre-order, so it's money in their pocket MONTHS before the game/console actually comes out. Basically, it's a "make the sale first and worry about the inventory later" mentality.

I can assure you, we've done plenty of research about issues with pre-orders, and this is hardly the first time we've written about them. Check out this link:
http://www.twitchguru.com/fringedrinking/2006/12/why_doesnt_the_gaming_industry.html

Furthermore, at no point in the blog post did you read me calling people stupid for investing in special edition games or criticizing Microsoft's hype. I actually think the Pontiac would be awesome, as I wrote in the post, because if you're going over the top, you might as well go all the way. And Halo 3 is one of the few games that can actually muster that kind of fan interest and passion, so good for MS and Halo.

@ Jack Me

The KKK? Sir, really, there's really no need for that.

And please, read the by-line of an article or blog post before you accuse someone of something. I've been accused of being anti-Sony and anti-PS3 (which I'm not, BTW) in the past for reporting about the consoles issues and company's marketing blunders. And now because I call into question the validity of retail pre-orders and poke fun at a Halo 3 Pontiac that I'm somehow anti-Halo? Really?

As for Halo 3, you might want to chew on this before leveling another accusation, sir:
http://www.tomshardware.com/site/flash_videos/second_take_halo_3_vs_crysis.html

Y'know Rob, usually I agree with you, but this has to be one of your most poorly written articles. Maybe a good face saving like having a part two with argument with one of the other editors would be good.

None of this seems particularly new, with (overpriced) special editions and what-have-you, nor cross promotional deals (If anything, it's getting closer to Japanese-scale video game cross-promotional deals, and that's always better). You do know you are talking about the game that had it's own bloody launch "Holiday" for Halo 2. However, such things are good for the economy, definitely good for the gaming culture... Sure, some might not like the game, but that's a matter of taste.

As for pre-orders, what you say holds -some- merit... when it comes to Online Stores, especially the super-discount ones. However, I've pre-ordered locally, especially from the likes of Gamestop and even Target, and I usually don't have too many problems. It could be because I live in a smaller town than LA, however, and because the way pre-order systems are designed (in which you become part of a pool of pre-order people, and it's all about first-come, first-serve, yet a step ahead of normal customers) means that a lot more people could be pre-ordering more units than the store receives. But even then, you're still ahead.

Finally... largest Hype Machine ever? Halo 3 I think will hold some water, definitely. The way you talk about it Rob, is as if it's going to be the next E.T.

Lay back on the J.D, eh?

Ah, and Next Point:

Comparing game launches to console launches? Hardly a worthy comparison. The manufacturing times, supplies, and costs for consoles versus games is completely and utterly different. Particularly because I don't think we're going to be running out of Discs anytime soon.

But point well taken that game makers and stores do need to be a bit more responsible with pre-orders.

@Beau

I see your point about consoles vs. games in terms of pre-orders, and I wondered about that myself several years ago. But I discovered it's not about manufacturing discs; rather, the issue is inventory space within the stores, especially the smaller game stores. Even if MS could produce 30 million copies of Halo 3 right out of the gate, there's not enough shelf space for the stores to carry boxes and and boxes of Halo 3.Yet many of these stores will take pre-order after pre-order, knowing that they don't have the actual number of games physically in the store. They're just hope that the mothership will FedEx them new shipments quickly enough to meet the demand, and sadly that doesn't always happen. It's a different issue than consoles and hardware.

Also, per your first post, I do think that Halo 3 will be the biggest video game launch of all time, with more marketing hype than any other title. And like I said, it's not a bad thing. It may not match Star Wars or E.T. but it will most likely be the biggest thing the games industry has ever seen.

And lastly, I hardly ever drink alcohol, and never J.D.

Ah... inventory space... very good point. I concede that then. I can imagine that many stores easily do that, I know I've seen Gamestop do that. However, even with FedEx delays, with the situations of major cities like LA or New York (or any city with similar huge populations) where the pre-order amount outwieghs the available inventory space of said stores by... oh... maybe 4 times or more... I can easily see a delay until... let's see... launch is September 25th... eh... into mid-October? About 3 weeks or so max... and that's only in the major cities (Though watch my predictions burn in the coming launch, you can nail me on that in a later article if you want). However, most stores I can see only maybe a one week delay max (At least, looking at Fresno, there's never been a real Pre-order Game Supply problem that hasn't been filled in a week, consoles being a whole different matter). I just don't see the delay being that huge except in major cities.

However, if the pre-orders were to get larger, we might see another Harry Potter situation where unlikely major retailer chains started carrying Halo at launch at cutthroat prices. However, that's a bit of wishful thinking.

Finally, I apologize for the J.D. comment, however... when I first read this article, the tone (whether you meant it or not) just came out all... nasty. Maybe others felt the same thing when reading it. Apologies once again.

Inventory space? The markup (and profit) on a disk is infinitly greater than that for a console. There are huge profits to be made with sales of games, not to mention increase in console sales that a popular title like this would instigate. There is no way in hell that any retailer would be short of supply for more than a few days (or hours).

Not quite always, Dom. You forget winter holidays and their infamous shipping delays. However, being that it launches September 25th, it would just barely miss it mostly, I'd imagine... unless everyone decides to swarm on Halo 3 during December instead of launch.

You are all forgetting that these stores get the large games like H3 and Madden days before they come out for the street date. They will have it for those who pre-orded, and i am sure as large as GS is they will have bunches of extra copies (H2 never sold out in my area). These companies, (and MS as well) wouldnt miss out on a ton of sales (not just the game, but the acc as well) by not having the correct allocations. These allocations are based on pre-orders, so they are important.

I have pre-ordered lots of games that came through just fine (Not GoW mind you) but many many others where i could not find them at the local Wal-Mart...

As for the writer of this.. try spell check.