Halo 3 marketing

The first person shooter video game Halo 3 was extensively marketed and hyped before its released on September 25, 2007. Upon release, the game sold a record 3,300,000 copies in its first week of sales alone, and broke records for the biggest entertainment debut in history. Halos developer, Bungie, produced several trailers and video documentaries to promote the game, partnering with firms such as Digital Domain and Weta Workshop. Licensed products including action figures, toys, and Halo 3-branded soda were released in anticipation of the game.

The saturation of advertising and promotions led Wired magazine to state: "The release of Halo 3 this week was an event that stretched far beyond our little gaming world. Everyone from the New York Times to Mother Jones wanted to cover it." Halo 3s marketing won several awards and was cited as evidence of the increasing mainstream popularity of games.

Promotional videos

A significant form of marketing was done by the release of videos. While Bungie often partnered with other companies to create the promos or advertisements, they also produced their own video documentaries or "ViDocs" detailing the behind-the-scenes development of aspects of Halo 3, including redesigning enemy Brutes, additions to multiplayer, and other game features. The first ViDoc was released shortly after the game's announcement, and the final ViDoc made its debut on September 20, 2007.

Trailers

Halo 3 was officially announced via a cinematic trailer rendered in real-time, shown at Microsoft's press conference at E3 2006 on May 9. The trailer is set in the dry plains of Africa, with the ruins of a space elevator and other damage visible. The Master Chief is slowly revealed walking through through smoke and dust, occasionally obscured by distorted images of the artificial intelligence Cortana transmitting a message composed of portions of the character's lines in the Cortana Letters, as well as a line from the poem "The Hollow Men." The distorted voice of Cortana was a deliberate clue to the character's predicament in Halo 3, with a Bungie staff member stating, "We don't know what has happened to her...We don't know it's Cortana. It could be any sort of bizarre, almost Satanic sort of voice. Something seems wrong." The trailer featured music by Martin O'Donnell, with the addition of a piano and brass section to the classic Halo theme.

Effects company Digital Domain created a second trailer that was aired only once on ESPN during December 4, 2006. The video is a mix of CGI and gameplay footage, using a mix of live action, the game's game engine, and computer graphics. In addition to showcasing new vehicles and weapons, the trailer introduced "Equipment", special items which have effects including a "bubble shield" seen in the trailer. The commercial was directed by Joseph Kosinski.

Bungie revealed a new trailer consisting of actual campaign cinematics and gameplay on July 11, 2007 during E3 2007. Set to a rearrangement of the "Halo" track from the Halo Original Soundtrack, the trailer revealed weapons, vehicles, and characters, including the arrival of human forces at the The Ark.

Live action shorts

The video teasers for Halo 3 included a series of videos directed by Neill Blomkamp, and the proposed director of a possible Halo film produced by Peter Jackson. Unlike previous trailers and videos, the shorts were the first to depict the Halo universe in a live-action setting. The production was a collaboration between Weta Workshop, Neill Blomkamp and Bungie Studios. When asked about the shorts, Neill said that he hoped that it would help to interest movie studios in his currently inactive movie project, since it lost its studio support in October 2006. GameTrailers released a compilation of the three videos edited together, titling it Landfall.

The first live action video, titled Arms Race, was originally shown at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2007. It was followed up by another short, Combat, which featured Covenant and human vehicles and weapons. The final video in the series aired on October 4, 2007 and was used by Discovery Channel to promote their reality show Last One Standing. The short ties the events depicted to the beginning of Halo 3, which begins as the Master Chief plummets to Earth.

"Believe" campaign

The last major advertising campaign before and during the games release was a series of videos marketed with the tagline "Believe". These videos were directed by Rupert Sanders (known for video game advertisements) and made to depict a generic representation of a single battle in Halo 3. The central element of the videos was a massive diorama over in size and over twelve feet tall, with handcrafted human and Covenant figures each standing eight to twelve inches (305 mm) high. The set and vehicles were built by New Deal Studios and the figures were supplied by Stan Winston Studio. A mockumentary "Making Of", detailing the making of the diorama was released on Xbox.com on September 14, 2007. Microsoft also launched a special "Believe" website, calling it "The John-117 Monument" to those who perished in the greatest battle in human history. The site allowed people to explore the diorama freely, and use a camera icon to take their own pictures of the diorama to create wallpaper screenshots with the Halo 3 logo. Special "hotspots" contained information and 3D models of various combatants, personal accounts of the battle from individual soldiers, or several videos, which were released periodically.

In the first part of the "Believe" series of commercials, titled "The Museum", a live-action video featured an elderly veteran, Pawel Czernek, one of the few surviving combatants who fought in a battle alongside the Master Chief near New Mombasa, Kenya. The video takes place in the 26th century at the "Museum of Humanity", where Czernek relates the desperate situation of his fellow soldiers and how the Master Chief gave the humans hope. The video debuted online on September 11, 2007, and referenced a new television ad, which featured a camera pan over the length of the diorama up to a seemingly defeated Master Chief held aloft by a Covenant Brute. The Master Chief animates and activates a plasma grenade before the scene cuts to black. Further advertisements related the experiences of other human soldiers as they toured the museum and former battlefields on which they fought. The series of advertisements was localized; in Great Britain, the "Believe" campaign was presented as though it was the war photography of a photojournalist named Jake Courage.

Public beta testing

On April 10, 2007, Bungie announced that a public beta test of the multiplayer component would run from May 16, 2007 at 5 a.m. PDT to June 6, 2007 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Bungie later announced that the beta would be extended to June 10, 2007 due to problems on the first day. Internal testing progressed for some time at Microsoft before the public beta and although internal testers were subject to a non-disclosure agreement, footage leaked on to the Internet showing previously un-revealed weapons, equipment, and other game elements.

Entry into the Halo 3 beta consisted of three phases;

• Phase 1: Sign ups on Halo3.com at the time of the "Starry Night" commercial release.
• Phase 2: "Rule of Three" promotion - be among the first 13,333 to sign up at Halo3.com after playing three hours of Halo 2 on Xbox Live during February 1st-3rd, 2007.
• Phase 3: Buy/Rent a copy of the Xbox 360 game Crackdown.

Additionally, some beta places were given out to certain community websites in Europe over the Xbox Community Network program. There was also a "Friends and Family" beta program that started a few days before the public beta, whose participants had already been chosen. Some of whom were Bungie.net members who received a Beta invitational code sent to them on the May 11 via a private message on Bungie.net.

The public portion of the beta consists of matchmaking play only on three multiplayer maps: Valhalla, High Ground and Snowbound. Bungie has stated that the beta supports split screen for up to two players. The public beta also contains only a limited version of the "saved films" feature, which allows players to save their games after they play them and watch them again later.

On May 16, 2007, the day the public beta began, problems were reported from owners of Crackdown that they could not download the beta. Bungie has made a statement that they had contacted the Xbox Live Authorities and were hoping for only a short delay for those attempting to access the beta via Crackdown. Later the same day, Bungie made an update saying the Microsoft team found a solution and that the issue "will be resolved shortly". At 10:24 p.m. EST, a patch was distributed over Crackdown, fixing the problem. Bungie also announced that the beta would be extended until June 10 to compensate.

Alternate reality game

Halo 3 featured a promotional alternate reality game or ARG called "Iris". Alternate reality games, which involve cross-media gameplay and player participation, had been previously used for the promotion of Halo 2 via the award-winning I Love Bees. On June 11, 2007, only a couple hours after the Halo 3 public beta ended, a surreptitious user named "AdjutantReflex" of "CompoundIntelligence" appeared in the official Halo 3 forums on Bungie.net and wrote "This will be a good place to begin." He responded to seemingly random users and their questions in a robotic manner, claiming to be a "Facilitator", whose purpose is the "Facilitation of Array requirements". His responses were vague and written in a gold colored font that individualized himself from the rest of the users, who were unable to change the color of their own font. Reminiscent of the events that introduced the "I Love Bees" alternate reality game, users were quickly led to believe that, because of the circumstances, this was indeed a new ARG from Bungie themselves to hype the forthcoming of Halo 3.

A Circuit City advertisement that wasn't to be seen until the Sunday from which these events occurred had leaked three days early and revealed a Halo 3 Comic that explained how the Forerunner race came to Earth to build their structures approximately 100,000 years ago. The last page of the comic was interactive and users could slide panels left and right or scratch out objects that revealed numbers. The numbers, 206, 16, 223, and 65, when put together from the interactive panels, formed an IP Address. Because the comic was not to be seen for another three days from June 14, the address, http://206.16.223.65, initially led to nothing.

Moments after the news of the secret address spread across multiple forums and blogs, a website appeared on it named "Transmission Log" that featured a background and a strange countdown. The counter was in base 7; Bungie's preoccupation with the number seven is evident in many of their games. The counter was counting down to June 21, the summer solstice or longest day of the year. On June 21, the page was updated, and now showed a 3D rendering of a Forerunner object which could be viewed at any angle; parts of the object reveal text or video clips.

Merchandise and promotions

Halo ActionClix

Halo ActionClix is a collectible miniatures game by Wizkids based on the Halo series. Released September 18, 2007, the first available set has 86 miniature figures from the Halo universe, including content from Halo 3. The set is comprised of figurines from the three factions in the Halo universe; the UNSC, Covenant, and Flood and a variety of vehicles. An average game for two players is estimated to take 45 minutes, however games can be played with more than two people in teams or in free-for-all matches.

There were 3 different packs available on release, a "Hunter Action Pack" containing 4 standard figures, two Hunter figures and a Portable Plasma Cannon, a 5 figure blind (random characters) booster pack and a 4 figure semi-blind booster pack. Other packs advertised but not available at release include a Warthog, Banshee, and the Halo 3 Scarab that was unveiled at the 2007 San Diego Comic Con priced at $249.99 in the US and £119.99 in the UK.

Each figurine is individually numbered and comes with a character card to explain its in-game traits. There are also many promotional figures available only at one-time releases. Gamestation stores in the UK offered a Master Chief figurine only available to the first 1000 pre-orders of the Halo 3 Legendary Edition, and Target sold a two figure pack of Master Chief and The Arbiter with a pre-order of Halo 3. Carolyn Koh of GamersInfo.net praised the ease of learning and depth of play commenting that "[it] will provide a fun and enjoyable game."

Action figures and statues

Todd McFarlane announced new figurines based on Halo 3 for 2008, with the Series One figurines being released in March of that year, Series Two including ODST, Drone, Mongoose and Wraith figurines in June, and Series Three including Human Flood, Brute Captain, Banshee and Scorpion figurines in August, along with a special 12" Master Chief figurine. McFarlane promised three highly "stylized" figures for October 2008 as well.

Kotobukiya, a Japanese company which specializes in high-end statues, busts and replicas released a line of Master Chief statues in its ArtFX lineup. The first in line was a Master Chief statue holding a plasma sword, with later statues in various combat poses and weapons. Some of the regular lineup also came in different colors or materials made for a limited release.

In a Comic-Con 2007 announcement, Weta Limited obtained the license to make high-end Halo 3 collectibles. Weta Collectibles, a division spawned off from the famed physical effects company Weta Workshop, worked for a year to release a line of limited edition Halo 3 related collectibles, mainly as polystone statues. A sneak preview of the statues were shown during Comic-Con 2008 in July, which includes a Master Chief helmet replica, Master Chief and Arbiter statue, various combat themed statue displays of Master Chief fighting Grunts or Flood, and a Cortana statue. To commemorate the finished products, Weta Collectibles put up four of the statues in the lineup, which are specially coated or made in solid sterling silver, for auction on eBay during August. On August 28th and subsequently on September 3rd, two of the statues have been made available for preorder, which will be released in the 2nd quarter of 2009.

Other promotions

Pepsi-Cola announced a new variant of Mountain Dew called Game Fuel. It is a limited edition citrus-cherry flavored drink. Twelve fluid ounces of Game Fuel contains 72 milligrams of caffeine, 170 calories, 65 milligrams of sodium, 46 grams of carbohydrates, no fat, no protein, and no significant source of other vital nutrients. The packaging ties in Halo 3, sporting images of the Master Chief. A Slurpee version of Game Fuel, with a specially designed Slurpee cup and lid, as well as special 99-cent Doritos packaging had also been developed for 7-Eleven Stores for a Halo Wars voice-acting sweepstakes. Despite being planned to be available for only 12 weeks, Game Fuel is still being stocked in many stores as of April 20 2008.

A Halo 3 inspired Zune developed in partnership with the game's creators Bungie was announced at a Halo 3 event in May 2007. The Halo 3 Zune is sold exclusively at Gamestop. The Halo 3 Zune comes in either dark brown or black, and features a Halo symbol on the back. Both versions are loaded with Halo content, including a custom episode of the popular series Red vs. Blue and were designed to feel like something that came from the game.

Ibanez Guitars presented a contest where if registered, a monthly winner will be presented. The prizes include Ibanez's own Xiphos XPT700 guitar with a custom Halo 3 graphic, the game itself, and two shirts by Ibanez and Halo 3.

Microsoft will also be sponsoring the #40 car driven by David Stremme for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Dover 400 Nextel Cup Series. The car will have a Halo 3 inspired paintjob featuring the title for the game printed prominently on the hood and rear bumper, as well as large pictures of Master Chief on each of the rear fenders. Coincidentally, they will be competing against the #16 car, driven by Greg Biffle, that is sponsored by Nintendo's Wii.

Microsoft sponsored the "Red vs Blue Charity Challenge" (unrelated to the machinima series Red vs. Blue), a series of sporting and musical "challenges" that aim to raise money for 2 Australian charities. Red team raises money for Mission Australia and blue team raises money for Make-A-Wish Australia. V8 Supercars driver Rick Kelly wore a Master Chief styled race helmet for the Bathurst 1000 to promote the Halo 3's sales in Australia and the sporting challenge involved Ford and Holden's racing teams. The team that won the Bathurst 1000 had AUD $5,000 donated by Microsoft to their respective charities. Holden represented red (Mission Australia) and Ford represented blue (Make-A-Wish Australia). Ford driver Craig Lowndes won the race. Other "challenges" include Xbox 360s with air brushed musicians faces on the case and celebrities arm-wrestling.

Burger King announced a special promotion starting September 24, 2007 (the day before the game's release) in which Master Chief, the Halo 3 logo, and the new "Believe" slogan would appear on large cups and French fry wrappers.

Pontiac announced a sweepstakes with a Halo 3-branded Pontiac G6 GXP Street and being the first to play the game on an IMAX screen as prizes. Pontiac will also have a promotion tour featuring their vehicles.

Launch parties

On September 24, 2007, a multi-city launch party was held by Microsoft to celebrate the midnight launch of Halo 3, in New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles and Miami, where the first copies of Halo 3 would be sold at the strike of midnight. All around the United States and the world at large, non-affiliated stores in other cities and towns held their own midnight parties, including such international cities such as Paris, Madrid and Amsterdam. However, there was some controversy as some launches were cancelled by city officials, such as the City of Westminster, where it was feared the crowds would be too unruly and uncontrollable for the local law enforcement to handle. However, no launch parties reported any serious crime or unruliness.

Bungie team members attended launch events in the United States, as well as across the world; celebrities also hosted launch events. The flagship New York City party was held at Best Buy, and was hosted by Larry Hryb. Figurines from the diorama of the aforementioned "Believe" videos were given away, along with Halo 3-themed Zunes, posters, strategy guides and copies of the game to some of the early line waiters. The event was heavily covered by mainstream and gaming press, such as Spike TV, G4, CNN, and network news. The Seattle, Washington launch party held a raffle to give away Legendary Editions, wireless headsets, and signed books to benefit the local Encompass charity organization. Zac Efron hosted the Los Angeles launch party, which was promoted by Entertainment Tonight, while Miami Dolphins stars Chris Chambers and Joey Porter signed autographs at the Miami midnight launch.

Impact

CinemaBlend pointed out the Halo 3 phenomenon as evidence of the mainstreaming of video games, and "...Like movies, radio, and television before, games are becoming more and more accepted in the popular culture. To capitalize on the mainstream attention, Xbox 360 Fanboy (a Joystiq sister site) noted, "Microsoft contends that such a [marketing] push is necessary to maintain the appearance of 'a big budget, mass media event'.

Awards

At the PR Week awards Microsoft won the "Technology Campaign of the Year" along with Edelman for Halo 3s launch and the "Believe" won the "GRANDY", the grand prize, at the 2008 ANDY Awards. Halo 3s advertising also won five "gold cubes", one "silver cube" and two distinctive merit ceritifcates at the Art Directors Club Annual Awards Ceremony, most of the awards relating to the Believe campaign.

References

External links

• HD announcement trailer, on Microsoft.com. (Direct link - WMV)
• High Resolution Behind The Scenes (of E3 2006 trailer) on Bungie (Direct download link - 383 MB - WMV)
• Et Tu Brute? Video Documentary (Direct Link - WMV - 360px)
• Halo 3 Documentary Bungie.net in-depth documentary of the E3 2006 teaser trailer.
• 720p E3 2007 trailer of Halo 3 Campaign (WMV - 720p - 92MB) A montage of campaign clips shown at the E3 2007 Microsoft Conference (Medium) (Small)