XBox's 360s Halo 3 surge peters out

In its earnings call, Microsoft crowed about how Halo 3 had finally brought its Entertainment and devices division into profitability, driving up its outlook and stock price. Further, videos like the one shown above on YouTube suggest that Halo's popularity will influence American culture for years to come. So life in the XBox gaming world is good, right?

Unfortunately, that surge in sales is so last quarter. The Wall Street Journal reports today that while Microsoft sold 3.3 million copies of Halo 3 in the few days it was available in September, October sales were only 433,800 units, suggesting that the pent up demand for Halo may be pretty-well satisfied. The result: The Nintendo Wii went back to outselling the XBox 360 console by 519,000 to 366,000 for the month of October. My takeaway: don't expect Microsoft's Entertainment division to continue those profits going forward, since XBox 360 consoles are sold at a loss. And with at least two years until there's another Halo to boost XBox sales, Microsoft had better be looking for another franchise game if it wants to beat Nintendo.

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