Halo 3' racks up $300mm in sales the first week!

Redmond’s been trading those smug Balmer-type grins for real honest-to-God smiles. The "Halo 3" juggernaut continues, as Microsoft said Thursday morning that the popular action game has racked up sales of more than $300 million globally in its first week on the market.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant developed and publishes the "Halo" games exclusively for its video game console, the Xbox 360.

In a statement Thursday morning, the company did not say how many consoles were sold during the game's first week on the market, but the franchise is known to be a big driver of hardware sales.

"Halo 3" was launched on Sept. 25. Microsoft previously said the game racked up about $170 million in sales in its first 24 hours.

On Thursday, the company also disclosed that more than 2.7 million gamers have played "Halo 3" over its Xbox Live online gaming platform. That represents nearly one-third of the service's total membership.

"'Halo' is truly a cultural phenomenon, and the launch of 'Halo 3' is an important milestone for Xbox 360 and for video games as entertainment and as an art form," Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said in the statement.

Reviews for "Halo 3" have been strong, but have slipped a bit since the opening day. The game's score on Metacritic -- which assigns overall game scores based on reviews from multiple sources - has "Halo 3" currently sitting at 95, which is down a couple of points from the score on the game's opening day.

Todd Mitchell of Kaufman Bros. thinks "Halo 3" will help drive sales of the Xbox 360 over the holiday season, giving the platform a large advantage over the rival PlayStation 3 from Sony Corp..

Others are less bullish. In a Sept. 28 report, Michael Savner of Banc of America Securities trimmed his sales estimates for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3.

"Not surprisingly, initial sales of 'Halo 3' have been strong," Savner wrote. "However, we do not see the same potential for incremental hardware sales relative to if 'Grand Theft Auto IV' was also prepping for release."

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