SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday that early orders for its upcoming Xbox 360 game "Gears of War" are second only to its 2004 blockbuster "Halo 2," giving the company a running start as it aims to compete with the debut of Sony's rival PlayStation 3 console.
"Halo 2" for the original Xbox had pre-orders of 1.5 million and an additional million copies were sold in its first day of release, setting the bar for subsequent Xbox titles.
"Gears of War" is shaping up to be the biggest game on the 360 this year, and Microsoft hopes its stunning graphics, over-the-top violence and multiplayer features will spur more people to pick a 360 over rival systems from Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co. Ltd. Shane Kim, Microsoft's vice president in charge of its game studios, declined to say exactly how many copies "Gears of War" has presold, or what expectations it has for the game.
"I can say that the demand, at least in terms of pre-orders and support and demand from retail partners, has been outstanding all over the world," Kim said in an interview.
"For Microsoft Game Studios it is the number two behind only 'Halo 2'. That's a significant number."
"Halo 2" had the benefit of building on the successful formula of its predecessor, and it also came three years into the life of the Xbox, meaning there was a bigger pool of potential buyers of the game.
"Gears," by contrast, comes just a year after the Xbox 360 launched, and its $60 price tag is 20 percent higher. A sci-fi action game featuring beleaguered human soldiers battling swarms of aliens bent on mankind's destruction, "Gears" invites comparisons to "Halo 2," widely seen as the gold standard of Xbox shooting games.
"Gears" has generated a huge amount of buzz since the first visuals -- featuring gritty armored soldiers prowling dark, gothic environments -- were displayed at a 2005 industry show.
Type "gears of war" into Google, and the search engine spits back nearly 7.4 million results, about 25 percent more than a similar search for "Halo 2."
But Kim cautioned against setting expectations too high. "It's very unfair to compare any title to 'Halo', which is arguably the biggest franchise in our industry today," Kim said. "'Halo 2' is just an unfair comparison for any title because that was just a different animal."
"Gears" is just one part of a two-pronged holiday push by Microsoft, which is also launching "Viva Pinata," aimed at younger gamers, next week.
In that game, the player tends a colorful virtual garden to lure wild living pinatas that they then tame and breed.
"I've said for a long time that 'Viva Pinata' is just as important a launch (as "Gears"). We intend to win this generation," Kim said, referring to competition from the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's upcoming Wii console.
Kim reiterated Microsoft's official targets of having 10 million Xbox 360s in the hands of gamers by the end of this year, and of having 6 million people signed up with the Xbox Live online service by the end of next June, up from about 4 million users now.
"In the same way that 'Halo 2' really drove Xbox Live and Xbox Live subscriptions, we think 'Gears of War' will do the same for the Xbox 360," Kim said. "We feel great where we going to be at the end of this holiday."
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