Halo 3 Free Trial
Posted by Nathan Jones in Uncategorized, tags: computer, entertainment, films, games, halo, halo 3, happiness, microsoft, movies, other, super heroes, Uncategorized, video, video games, xboxThe release of Halo 3 was fervently awaited, as the game was the third in the original trilogy of the Halo games. Therefore, the Halo 3 trial download was one of the most frequently downloaded video game demos in the history of the Xbox 360. But what many people don’t realize is that the Halo 3 trial download helped make another game ie Crackdown.
What does the Halo 3 demo download have to do with any another video game? Well, it has a great deal to do with the distribution and promotional work for a video that was originally planned for release on the Xbox system. Microsoft had become concerned that Crackdown wouldn’t sell a lot.
So they employed a marketing tactic, the one of bundling Crackdown with an access code for the Halo 3 trial download. And it worked in that Crackdown sold 1.5 million copies within the first six months of its release. Those aren’t Halo 3 numbers, which sold 8.1 million copies in slightly over a year, but for a lesser well-known game that’s fantastic.
Microsoft had resorted to the Halo 3 trial download tactic because of poor reports about the game from the play testers. They thought the nonlinear nature of the game off-putting, often leaving them asking themselves what they were supposed to be doing next.
As a result of this, the powers that be thought that something had to be done or the game would be a dud. It may appear dodgy practice at first to try to push sales of a game that’s expected to be unpopular, but in hindsight people love the game and it was a good thing that they were able to get the chance to play it.
In Crackdown, and that includes the one associated with the Halo 3 trial download, people play as an agent who is assigned to defeat the kingpins, or leaders, of different gangs. To do this they use some superhuman powers such as super strength and super agility. In order to obtain these powers, players have to build up experience by beating foes who then release experience orbs. The clever part of the system was that the kind of orbs released depended on the manner in which the agent killed the enemy. For example, a firearms orb appears if the enemy was killed with a gun.
So, although at first sight this game bundled with the Halo 3 free download appears to be nothing but a veiled marketing gimmick, in fact, it exposed gamers to an exciting new gameplay experience.
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