The Voices In My Head - The Official Blog of Chris Stubbs

September 25th 2007 - To your average person, its just another Tuesday on the old calendar. Unless of course your average person plays video games.

Because September 25th will mark the release of Halo 3 - the third installment in the Halo first person shooter video games series. For those not familiar with it, Halo follows the iron clad super solider, Master Chief (shown below) as he wages war against aliens. Big guns. Big badies. Cool story. Lost of strange noises. Rolling your eyes yet?

But what if I told you that Halo 3 is going to be the biggest entertainment release of all time? Does this "Halo" sounds any more interesting to you now?

A bit of a preface on whats going on to coincide with the release of this game.

Burger King is coming out with the "Halo 3 meal" which will feature a gargantuan beverage and probably a really cheap happy meal toy.
Mountain Dew has launched an entirely new flavor of soda, which they call "Game Fuel", to coincide with the Halo release. The cover boy and inspiration for this new drink? None other than our good friend Master Chief. When interviewed, Mountain Dew VP of Marketing Frank Cooper said "This is the first time we've created a beverage for an entertainment property...Microsoft's Halo 3 is more than just a video game, it's become a cultural phenomenon that deserves its own special Mountain Dew extension"*. Walmart is opening all of their doors at midnight (for the stores that arent open 24 hours anyway) and preparing special "Halo 3 lines" in honor of the release... though I have no idea what that means =) Seven Eleven is geting in on the action with Halo cups. And the icing on the cake? Pontiac is giving away a Halo themed G6 sports sedan and offering advanced game previews in an effort to lure in potential car buyers. Never-mind of course the Halo book line (one of which was a New York Times best seller), the upcoming comic book series, and the Halo movie, which is still in its infancy.

The goal in all of this? To inspire a Halo opening day release so massive that it tops the record holding $151 million dollar Spiderman 3 movie opening weekend. And the way its looking, Halo 3 wont just beat Spiderman's record, it will shatter it - making it the single biggest entertainment release of all time.

But nothing really brought it home like this image from Xbox360fanboy (shown right).

One of the many reasons I write posts about video games is to evangelicise them a bit. I've been a gamer all my life, and in addition to understanding a lot of their potential value, I've seen and felt the scorn of those who feel that my pastime/ professional interest is nothing more than a waste of time that could be better served doing... pretty much anything. My hope, in writing some of the posts that I write is that people who may not do the things I do might get a glimpse into some of the cool things that happen in the gaming world - to help bring awareness, to help sway a few of the haters, and ultimately to help people understand the impact and potential for video games in our society and more specifically as a tool to help teach. Inevitably of course, there will always be those who throw games to the wayside.

Today's post is for those people. But in this post, there isnt a need to convince anyone of anything. Because whether you care or not, consider them valuable or worthless, love them or hate them, support them or dismiss them, own them or see them as the end of all civilization... video games are here. They are huge. And they are changing our country, one pixel at a time.

The tag line for Halo 3 is "Believe". Nothing could be more fitting. I hope you're listening.

Also see:
Maddenoliday turns Time Square Into New Years 2 for Madden '08

* Frank Cooper quote from bevnet.com
Images from wikipedia.com, kotaku.com, bevnet.com, xbox360fanboy.com