Everyone knew that Halo 3 would be a blockbuster for Microsoft. The game was hyped to no end and developers at Bungie even acknowledged that their efforts with Halo 2 weren't the greatest and that Halo 3 would right all of those wrongs.

Halo 3 lived up to the hype and recorded first-day sales of over $170 million USD and garnered nearly universal praise.

"Halo 3 has become a pop-culture phenomenon," said Shane Kim of Microsoft's Game Studios. "Not only is Halo 3 setting sales records, it's also redefining entertainment... Within the first 20 hours alone, we've seen more than a million Xbox Live members come online to play Halo 3 - that makes September 25 the most active Xbox Live gaming day in history."

Microsoft is once again playing the numbers game and today announced that Halo 3's first-week sales broke the $300 million USD mark. In addition, retailers are reporting the sales of the Xbox 360 console roughly doubled during the first week of Halo 3 availability.

Moreover, almost one-third of players on Xbox Live during launch day were playing Halo 3. Halo 3 players recorded over 3.6 million hours of online play during the first 24 hours of availability and over 40 million hours during the first week of availability.

"Halo is truly a cultural phenomenon, and the launch of Halo 3 is an important milestone for Xbox 360 and for video games as entertainment and as an art form," said Microsoft founder Bill Gates. "Halo 3 embodies our vision for the future of entertainment, where some of the world's greatest creative minds will deliver a new generation of interactive storytelling."

Halo 3 is available in three versions: Standard Edition ($59.99), Limited Edition ($69.99) and Legendary Edition ($129.99).