Microsoft’s new mega-ton franchise, Gears of War, the brainchild of Quake-developer Cliffy B. and the team over at Epic, has set the Xbox 360 ablaze by selling over three million copies worldwide, since it’s release last Nov.
The gritty first-person shooter reached this milestone only ten weeks after it’s release. And it was the top selling game in the U.S. for both Nov. and Dec. last year, coming in third place for all of the U.S. despite being released so late in the year, being on the shelves for only two months in 2006. It’s no doubt that many people picked up an Xbox 360 as well just for this game.
MS pointed out that Gears was not only the fastest-selling title of 2006, but also the fastest-selling 360 exclusive of all time. The two new multiplayer maps, recently released on Xbox Live Marketplace (Raven Down and Old bones) have also been downloaded over 750,000 times. Adding to the tremendous total of over 1.5 million downloads for Gears of War, which include maps, themes and a video walkthrough.
Gears of War has proved itself to be a blockbuster success in not only the U.S., but also Japan, where the game received unusually high marks for a western title, and a shooter at that. While it received many Game of the Year awards in the U.S., it also received much critical claim in Japan, receiving a Platinum award from Famitsu making it the 2nd title from Microsoft Games Studio in the past two months to gain such high honors, the other being the Myst Walker‘s RPG Blue Dragon.
“Like blockbuster titles from Microsoft’s Halo franchise and the Grand Theft Auto and Zelda franchises, Gears of War is tracking to be one of the best-selling video games of all time and has established itself as the most successful new IP of the next generation,” said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of Global Marketing, Interactive Entertainment Business Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft Corp.
There was much hype leading up to the release of Gears of War, and rightfully so. One of it’s trailers, “Mad World“, a very sad, very cinematic and very artistic trailer was featured in Advertising Age‘s Book of Tens as one of the “top creative concepts of 2006“.
You can view that trailer in HD below.