Microsoft Stock Gets Help From Halo 3 Video Game

The good folks over at the Microsoft Corporation have plenty of reasons to celebrate these days as their company stock is on the rise. This can be attributed mostly to the incredible success of the video game Halo 3, which was released on Monday, September 25. This futuristic first person shooter game has had a devoted following since the first version was released in 2001, and they are the indirect driving force behind the increase in the Microsoft stock price.

On September 24, 2007, the day before the release of the Halo 3 video game, Microsoft saw their stock value increase by as much as 3.35 percent. By the end of the day it had settled at 29.08 dollars per share on NASDAQ, up by 1.5 percent. About a week later on Monday, October 1, it opened up at 29.46 per share, and things are expected to improve even more for Microsoft during the week.

Halo 3 has been flying off the shelves since September 25 with a record breaking 170 million dollars made on the first day. With the holiday season coming up, Microsoft is hoping that all the publicity and sales will be focused on their Halo 3 video game and Xbox 360 video game consoles instead of on Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, as it was last year.

Even with all of the business Microsoft has lost to Sony and Nintendo lately, they are still doing very well overall. They are a huge corporation with annual revenues reaching 50 billion dollars. Their Entertainment and Devices division makes up only about 12 percent of that amount, but it is the fastest growing part of their company. In 2007 this division grew by 28 percent. This kind of growth has caused Microsoft to take their video games and video game consoles very seriously.

The Halo 3 video game cost Microsoft 60 million dollars to make and another 20 million dollars in promotion and marketing. They are predicting that overall Halo 3 will make about 600 million dollars with a profit margin that is astronomical compared to most video games. So far, sales have exceeded expectations and it seems certain that they will continue to do so.

Video games like Halo 3 are not typical in their success. In fact, most video games lose money. But this game is different, for it has a cultural phenomenon surrounding it. There is a very large customer base that adores this video game and just cannot get enough of it. The first two installments of the Halo franchise sold 15 million video games.

Sales of the Xbox 360 video game consoles had been lagging in recent months due to the popularity of Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii. The Halo 3 game should help to improve their sales. Microsoft is hoping that this highly publicized chapter in the Halo video game franchise will also help to sell a lot of their Xbox 360 video game consoles that come with a Halo 3 theme and design.

The rave revues and excitement surrounding the Halo 3 video game has given stock investors confidence in Microsoft. They are predicting that this video game and its related products like Xbox 360 video game consoles, action figures and the Xbox 360 Live game that subscribed members can play on the Internet will put Microsoft far ahead of its main competitors Sony and Nintendo.

Playstation 3 and Wii consoles have dominated the hearts and minds of those who play video games due to their technological advances, but neither of those two video game consoles has a game like Halo 3 attached to it with such a huge fan base.

Microsoft has been very clever to marry the Halo 3 video game to their Xbox 360 video game console. Having the Halo 3 name and design on the console is sure to boost the sales of it and bring in more revenue to Microsoft through their Entertainment and Devices division.

So far, those who play video games are giving Halo 3 rave revues and it looks like Microsoft has hit a home run with this product. They are well on their way to regaining the crown as the king of video games and video game consoles. Halo 3 has proven to be a very good investment for them, and this has helped the value of the Microsoft stock. It has risen almost 2 percent in just one week and things are looking good for this scrappy, creative and innovative company.

Michael P. Connelly is an Author, Artist and award-winning Filmmaker who writes on a variety of topics that effect people in their every day lives.

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CES: Microsoft on Kinect, the 360, and the future of Xbox Live

This week at CES we had the opportunity to chat with David Dennis, Group Manager for Public Relations, Interactive Entertainment Business (in English: PR Manager for Xbox 360/Kinect amongst other things) briefly about the Xbox 360, Kinect, and Xbox Live. While much of our conversation reiterated points made during Steve Ballmer's CES Keynote for Microsoft the night prior, Dennis shared a number of important bits of information on Microsoft's philosophy moving forward with the Xbox 360 and Kinect.

On Hulu Plus:

While Steve Ballmer's keynote on Wednesday night made no mention of the particulars of how Xbox users would gain access to Hulu Plus, Dennis clarified the situation. As most Xbox 360 owners might expect, "Hulu Plus will require an Xbox Live Gold subscription." Meanwhile, Dennis also confirmed that "Like Netflix, Hulu Plus will require its own subscription fee in addition to Xbox Live Gold."

On Kinect and the Dashboard:

"Obviously we continue to work to add Kinect functionality to the Xbox 360 experience. We're still working on adding additional language options and voice commands to (it)." Dennis was less clear about the Kinect Hub adding support for media streaming outside of the ESPN/Netflix/Zune/Hulu ecosystem; when asked whether Kinect and voice playback of media streamed from Windows PCs would be added to the Xbox 360 dashboard, Dennis demurred, stating that Microsoft's ultimate goal was parity between the standard controller driven interface and Kinect.

On launch dates for Kinect Netflix support and Hulu Plus on Xbox 360:

"We're aiming for Spring," according to Dennis, reiterating Steve Ballmer's announcement earlier this week. When asked if they'll release individually or be rolled up into a bigger system update, Dennis said "that will depend on when they're done -- if one of them is done significantly before the other, then we'll release it. But, if they wrap up within a short of amount of time of each other, we'll try to put them out at the same time. It's just logistically easier that way.

On Kinect vs. the Hardcore

"Obviously we're very excited by the success of Kinect," Dennis said. "But we have no intention of abandoning the Xbox 360 audience that bought in originally. We're very aware of the key role the enthusiastic core audience played in making the Xbox 360 what it is, and we'll continue to support and develop (titles) like Halo and Gears of War." Crytek's exclusive Codename: Kingdoms was mentioned and Dennis stressed that there are a number of core-focused titles in development that have not been announced.

On additional improvements to Xbox Live:

"A lot of the improvements we've made to Xbox Live over the last year have been behind the scenes -- a lot of work went into making sure Xbox Live was ready for the release of Halo: Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops," Dennis said, tacitly acknowledging the previous issues the service has experienced in the wake of high profile releases like Modern Warfare and Halo 3. "But," he continued, "we're very aware of the kinds of improvements Live users want to see, and we'll continue to work on developing the service." When asked what the biggest player priority seemed to be off the top of his head, Dennis replied "the friends list issue, which, you know, only affects a certain percentage of users, but clearly it's very important to them."

IGN.com

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