Gears of War Grinds Up Big Demand

Not long to go now till the game hits and Microsoft says pre-orders are already big.

Is Gears of War the new Halo? Anyone who has played the game will, quite rightly, pooh--pooh that, but from a performance perspective, Microsoft is hoping for a lot of the same things from the upcoming shooter.

According to the company's own numbers, Gears of War is now the second most pre-ordered game ever for its consoles in the US, behind Halo 2, which had 1.5 million pre-orders before its release in late 2004.

Microsoft's Shane Kim told Reuters that demand has been "outstanding all over the world." He stopped short, however, of giving specific numbers, suggesting that it's not quite to the level of Master Chief's previous Xbox adventure.

He admitted, too, that people shouldn't expect Gears of War to sell as well as Halo 2 did.

"It's very unfair to compare any title to Halo, which is arguably the biggest franchise in our industry today," Kim said. "Halo 2 is just an unfair comparison for any title because that was just a different animal."

Gears of War is coming at a good time. Sony is prepping PlayStation 3 for release in the US on 17 November, and it will be pushing Resistance: Fall Of Man of its shooter to get. Online plays a big part in the hype the game is building, specifically because of its massive, 40-player multiplayer modes.

Likewise, Microsoft is looking to Gears of War as a spur to get gamers online. The company is hoping to sell 10 million Xbox 360s by the end of the year, and it wants 6 million of those online by June.

Look for our full review of the game next week.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo