Richard Dean Anderson to launch Halo 3 in Dublin; Record breaking attempt planned
Actor Richard Dean Anderson is to launch Halo 3 in Dublin on Tuesday, forming one of the main elements of Microsoft’s Irish high-profile release of the highly anticipated Xbox 360 game.
News that the actor, most famous for playing MacGyver and more recently Jack O’Neill on Stargate SG-1, will launch the game was confirmed this evening to Games Toaster by a Microsoft spokesperson.
However, his visit to Dublin is still somewhat shrouded in mystery as there is still little detail of Anderson’s visit.
Record breaking attempt
Meanwhile, tomorrow - in the build up to the European release on Wednesday September 26 - Irish gamers will attempt to set record breaking times completing Halo 2.
The Guinness World Record - also organised by Microsoft - will start midday at the Dublin city centre in the morning. Microsoft expects hundreds games to turn up to the event at the Xbox Live Gaming Centre / Xbox Live Cafe.
The current record holder is Cody Miller who finished the game in three and a half hours with the ‘legendary’ difficulty setting on in August 2005. The publisher and console maker will be incentives such as prizes of
the limited edition ‘Legendary Edition’ of Halo 3, Marvel Halo graphic novels, and Halo 3 branded merchandise.
Promotion around Ireland
Microsoft also said that the game will be promoted across mediums and are aiming to make it one of the most high-profile entertainment launches. The Halo 3 TV advert, a still of which is pictured above, is just one example.
On the streets, Halo’s star Master Chief - or at least a person dressed as him - will appear on Grafton Street in Dublin this Saturday and Sunday, and move on to Cork, and Galway after that.
By the time of the launch, shoppers entering the main entrance of the St Stephens Green Shopping Centre will be greeted by Halo branding. This will link in with retailer Gamestop’s midnight launch at their new store at the shopping centre. Full details of of Gamestop’s midnight opening across Ireland can be viewed here.
GameStop opens midnight for Halo 3
Gamestop say they will open 14 of its 46 in the Republic and Northern Ireland at at midnight on Tuesday for the European release of Halo 3.
The retailer are to have midnight openings at Henry St, Stephens Green, and Clare Hall in Dublin, along with their outlets in Belfast, Derry, Limerick, Drogheda, Wexford, Tralee, Letterkenny, Mallow, Midleton, Killarney, and Bangor.
Other retailers, such as HMV, GAME, and Smyths, are also likely to have midnight openings in at least the main cities.
A Microsoft spokesperson told us this evening that, in Ireland, “Michael Finucane from Game stop says that pre-orders are running at twice the rate of Halo 2″, while a statement released this afternoon says the company worldwide is “running off 81 games per second to ensure that they meet global demand for this title”.
“It is fantastic to see the level of interest shown by Irish gamers, all of whom are eager to be one of the first people in the country to get their hands on what is set to be the must have game this Christmas,” said Orla Sheridan, country manager at the entertainment and devices division of Microsoft Ireland.
Halo 3 demand high says Irish retailer
Microsoft Ireland are reporting “Huge demand” for pre-orders of Halo
3, what it is calling the fastest pre-sales in video game history,
while Gamestop are say the
demand has been “nothing short of phenomenal”.
Worldwide pre-orders of Halo 3 have exceeded the 1 million according
to Microsoft, the publisher of the game and maker of the Xbox 360 games
console. No Irish sales numbers were released.
It’s set to be released in standard, limited, and “legendary
edition” - according to the publisher, the ‘legendary’ version is
expected to sell out before its September 26 launch.
Midnight openings are expected across Ireland for the launch of the latest Halo game.
“What we’ve experienced is nothing short of phenomenal, Halo 3 has
eclipsed the previous record set by Halo 2″ said Michael Finucane,
commercial director at Gamestop.
“It set a benchmark for others to follow and is a real indication of
how video games has now come to the forefront of the entertainment
industry… The excitement for Halo 3 is incredible”.
GameStop for Tullamore, Midleton, Mullingar
GameStop Ireland continues to expand their network of computer games stores across the country.
The Irish division of the multinational retail giant plans to open
outlets in Tullamore, Co Offaly; Midleton, Co Cork; and Mullingar, Co
Westmeath.
After the openings, the Dublin operation will control 42 stores,
including nine in Co Dublin, five in Co Cork, four in Northern Ireland,
and shops in Birmingham and Stockport in England.
Set up in 1994 by Kevin Neary and Michael Finucane the company
started in the back of a Dublin bookstore and first traded as
GamesWorld before GameStop Inc bought a controlling share in 2003. At
that point, the retailer re-branded its 11 outlets, and started the
current expansion.
The parent company owns shops across Europe, North America,
Australia, and Puerto Rico - it reported $1.7 billion in sales for the
last nine weeks of 2006, a 29% jump on the same period the year before.
Cork’s RedFM set for Gears of War special
Thursday night’s ‘Cork Talks Back’ on RedFM, a Gears of War
special, will include an interviewer with the game’s lead designer.
Epic Games’s Cliff Bleszinski (or Cliff B) will feature in an
interview on the show hosted by Victor Barry. The show will also be
giving away copies of the game.
Cork Talks Back broadcasts at 9pm from 104-106FM in Cork and online vie www.redfm.ie. After the show goes out the interview will be available for download on the station’s website.
The European “Emergence Day” — Epic’s and Microsoft’s
marketing name given to the release date of the game — is Friday. The
game is one of Microsoft’s triple-A titles on the Christmas line up.
Victor Barry will be playing over Xbox Live in a public session on
Saturday between 3pm and 5pm. Barry (gamertag: vicbarry) will follow in
the footsteps celebrities worldwide, and Today FM DJ Ray Foley
(gamertag: Ray Foley).
Foley says on his blog
that Gears of War “has changed my life”. After introducing himself
in a YouTube video “getting my ass kicked” (in the game), he says
he’s “shit at games”:
Barry has also been blogging about Gears of War — here, here, here, and here.
Multiplayer games outlet opens in Cork
Bartizan Game World, a new gaming café based in Midleton near Cork City, are to run ‘Open Days’ this weekend.
The open days are this Saturday and Sunday, March 25 26, from 10am until 7pm.
According to a front-page advertisement in Thursday’s Irish Examiner, the outlet has “75 stations” which include PCs, PS2s, and Xbox 360. While their website claims to have “a choice of PC, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360º”. All with “supper fast high speed broadband”.
They say they will have 100’s of games, and “the most exciting new titles before they hit the shops”.