Halo 3

Halo 3 is a shooter game where players primarily experience gameplay from a first-person perspective. Much of the gameplay takes place on foot, but also includes segments focused on vehicular combat. Combat focuses on the use of weapons, grenades, and melee attacks, which are available to a player in most situations. Players may dual-wield some weapons for additional firepower, forgoing the use of grenades and melee attacks.

Unlike previous installments, the player's secondary weapon is visible on their player model, holstered or slung across the player's back. Halo 3 introduces support weapons, cumbersome two-handed weapons that slow the player when carried, but offer greatly increased firepower in return.

Halo 3 is set in a science fiction setting during the years 2552 and 2553. Humanity is at war with a genocidal alliance of alien races known as the Covenant. After years of conflict, a Covenant fleet discovers Earth during Halo 2. "Halos" are massive ringworlds, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of kilometers in diameter, scattered across the galaxy.

These rings were constructed thousands of years ago by a race known as the Forerunners as weapons of last resort against the parasitic alien species known as the Flood. When activated, the Halos would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy, depriving the Flood of its food. The Forerunners disappeared after they activated the rings. In Halo: Combat Evolved, whilst fleeing the Covenant, the UNSC ship Pillar of Autumn stumbled upon one of these Halos, Installation 04.

Halo 2 was a critical and commercial success, but its development had taken a toll on Bungie. The game's development was fraught and rushed, resulting in the final act of the game's campaign being cut. Bungie was openly critical of the game's shortcomings, and viewed a third Halo game as a chance to do right by fans for Halo 2's problems, as well as the final Halo game the studio would make before moving onto other projects. Lingering dissatisfaction with Bungie's acquisition by Microsoft in 2000 and a desire for more favorable profit-sharing on Halo 3 led to an agreement where Bungie would become an independent studio after shipping a set number of new Halo games.

After Halo 2 shipped, Bungie cofounder Jason Jones went on sabbatical, leaving the Halo 3 team with little direction or leadership; different staff members wrestled over who would take on creative positions for the new game, and no clear creative direction was decided upon. Story writer Joseph Staten took a vacation after coming into conflict with other staff members, meaning there was no clear person who was responsible for the game's story for a portion of development. The story was drafted by a committee, then presented to senior Bungie members. Composer Martin O'Donnell recalled he did not feel the draft would work, as it left out previous characters and plot threads.

First-day sales of Halo 3 reached $170 million in the U.S., setting a record for highest gross of a video game within 24 hours of its release. The performance beat the previous record setter—Halo 2—which earned $125 million within 24 hours of its launch. The game was preordered by more than one million people in North America. Worldwide more than US$300 million worth were sold in the first week, helping to more than double the sales of the Xbox 360 when compared with the weekly average before the Halo 3 launch. By 2010, Microsoft reported total grosses at $600 million.

7 million copies by November 15, 2007. 2 million copies worldwide in the first two weeks after launch. , and the 14th-best-selling game of the 2000s. The game drew over a million Xbox Live members to play online in the first 20 hours, making it the biggest day for Xbox Live gaming in history.