Halo 3 - $155m on day one

Halo 3's only a month away and Microsoft isn't being shy about its massive expectations for the 360 frontrunner.

Variety reports that the company is aiming to rake in over $155 millionfrom the launch of Bungie's shooter, beating Halo 2's $125 million debut and even besting Spider-Man 3, the current record holder for an opening weekend at the box office.

"We did $125 million last time," Microsoft director of creative marketing Chris Di Cesare told Variety. "We're confident we can do better."

If you did maths at school (we did), or you have a calculator (we do), you'll work out that with the bumped-up $59.99 price tag on 360 games, Microsoft won't even have to sell the same amount of copies as the last game to break Halo 2's record.

Add to that that a large number of first-day sales will be Collector's Editionsand Legendary Edition's ($129.99), and Microsoft doesn't really have to get out of bed to reach the kind of numbers mentioned above.

Last in the series? We doubt it.

August 15, 2007