Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says that Microsoft and Bungie's Halo 3 launch will be the single biggest first day game release in history. Sales could easily hit US$ 200 million on launch date and sell 130,000 more Xbox 360s.

This could place the Xbox 360 at top spot again by going toe to toe with Nintendo's red-hot commercial success Nintendo Wii. The Xbox 360 and the Wii are precariously close in overall sales figures, though it must be noted that the Microsoft console had a year of headway before the Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 launched.

Microsoft is hauling in the proverbial nine yards of marketing and product extensions, sporting a deluxe edition of Halo 3 worth US$ 120, a comic book mini-series from Marvel, a new Mountain Dew variant called Game Fuel, ads on Burger King and 7-Eleven, and most recently a Halo 3 themed NASCAR paint job for David Stremme's No. 40 Dodge Charger.

"It will be the biggest first-day seller ever ... it will grow the installed base," says Pachter as he predicts some 2.5 million copies to fly off stores from the get-go. In effect, Pachter says that the September sales of the Xbox 360 game console will add up to 40,000. Hardcore fans are expected to treat the launch like a national holiday.

"It's a test for the industry on how much hype can you successfully get around a game," says X-Play host Morgan Webb as she concludes that this is a big event not only for Microsoft and Halo fans but for the business as a whole.