Halo 3 Free Trial
Posted By Nathan Jones on June 12, 2010
The release of Halo 3 was wildly anticipated, as the video was the third in the original trilogy of the Halo games. Therefore, the Halo 3 free download was one of the most downloaded game demos in the history of the Xbox 360. What many people don’t remember is that the Halo 3 trial download helped make another game – Crackdown.
What does the Halo 3 trial download have to do with another video game? Well, it has a great deal to do with the sale and promotional effort for a video that was originally planned for release on the Xbox system. Microsoft had become concerned that Crackdown would not sell well.
So they used a marketing tactic, the one of bundling Crackdown with an access code for the Halo 3 trial download. And it worked because 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 units in slightly over a year, but for a lesser well-known game that’s fantastic.
Microsoft had turned to the Halo 3 trial download tactic because of poor opinions about the game from the play testers. They found the nonlinear nature of the game off-putting, often leaving them wondering 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 loser. It may seem dodgy practice at first to try to force sales of a game that’s expected to be unpopular, but in retrospect people like 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 bundled with the Halo 3 free download, people play as an agent who is detailed to defeat the kingpins, or leaders, of different gangs. To do this they make use of various superhuman powers such as super strength and super agility. In order to gain these powers, players have to accumulate experience by beating enemies who then release experience orbs. The clever part of the system was that the kind of orbs released depended on the method in which the agent killed the enemy. For instance, a firearms orb appears if the enemy was killed with a gun.
So, although at first sight this game bundled with the Halo 3 trail download seems to be no more than a veiled marketing gimmick, in fact, it exposed gamers to an exciting new gameplay world.
If you like Halo 3 and are interested in learning more about it, why not pop over to Halo 3 Info on our web site called Halo 3 Insider Secrets
