Taking about 170 million dollars worth of money on launch, Halo 3 has predictably landed on the Xbox 360 with a loud thump. It’s probably the most-hyped title we’ve seen yet, with promotions ranging from the obvious action figures to the less obvious movie shorts. Its media offensive took a new approach to games marketing, featuring hardly any in-game footage or action- an oddity for a big budget next-gen shooter. Today, xboxer embarks on a little theorising as to why.

Halo 3’s graphics

Most reviews say the same thing- while the graphics for Halo 3 might be good, and have plenty of subtle touches, they fall short of being revolutionary. Big titles, especially shooters and action games, are normally marketed on the wow factor of their graphics. Just look at the launch of Halo 2, one of the prettiest titles available for the original Xbox. The E3 appearances showed long gameplay sequences, plenty of in-game footage and action. This wasn’t an option for Halo 3. As you might expect, Microsoft’s publicity department found a way around it.

A new approach- the first appearance at E3

The first E3 trailer had no in-game footage and no action, but having established the story with the first two games, Microsoft knew they could get away with hyping the story and not the graphics. It was a clever strategy, allowing them to build up anticipation and promise a deeper story to those who might be put off by another plotless fragfest.

The Halo 3 live-action shorts

One teasing pre-rendered superbowl ad later and Microsoft knew they had provide fans with more of the action they expected. They also knew that they needed to start persuading studios that a Halo 3 film would be a profitable endeavour. The solution? Kill two birds with one stone and release the live-action Halo 3 film shorts. Halo 3’s in-game graphics were kept from too much scrutiny, and the anticipation –for both the game and a Halo film- continued to build.

E3, 2007

For the final showing at E3, Microsoft knew it probably couldn’t avoid showing off some footage of its flagship title, but again the trailer emphasised the story elements of the game. Most of it was cinematic, but the in-game footage was very carefully cut to give only glimpses of the final game.

The run-up to release

The live-action films continued to come out, promising an epic clash of mythic proportions- something that the in-game footage had failed to give more than a few tantalising glimpses of. The rest of the promotion vehicle kicked off into high gear, bringing us Halo 3 Mountain Dew but not –thank goodness- Halo 3 Lingerie.

The reception

Microsoft knew that the game would be received well critically. It’s got a fantastically executed single-player mode that’s just too well done to hold a grudge against and an online mode that’ll be sure to satisfy all the Halo 1 and 2 fans out there. In the final analysis, the art direction of the Halo 3 is fantastic. The graphics have got a lot of nice little details, but fall short of astounding. Microsoft’s campaign nicely managed to keep anticipation for the title at a high without showing more than a few snapshots of the finished product, snapshots that they knew could lead to criticism.

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