The most popular console video game, Halo, is gearing up for a third round. Halo 3 is due out this fall for Xbox 360, but it reportedly already sold 4 million in pre-orders — according to some very unofficial stats. You may remember Halo 2 set a record for the most sales in a 24-hour period by any form of media, and industry watchers believe Halo 3 could smash that record. Some people who are pre-ordering the game don’t even own a 360 yet. So why all the hype? Check out this video released by Bungie featuring one of its beta testers putting Halo 3’s multiplayer to the test. Killer.

If there were a way to measure it, I would bet that Halo 3 will take a significant bite out of television viewing for 18-34 year olds in the weeks after its debut.

S Mark adds in comments: “Come on, you are smarter than this article. How many Xbox 360s have been sold? If this was true, that would mean almost half of all owners have registered with Gamestop for a pre-order? Gamestop doesn’t account for 1/2 let alone 1/4 of any games total sales, but in this case they do? But hey the clerk said it must be true, so it must right??”

Cory adds: Good point, and I added “very unofficial stats” to the post above. Yet quite possible overall. Halo 2 pre-sold 1.5 million, and a lot has changed since November 2004: A lot more consoles are out there, game sales across the board are way up and many more people are pre-ordering their games these days. Regardless of specific numbers, this game will set new records.

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