The release of Halo 3 was wildly anticipated, as the video was the third in the original trilogy of the Halo series. As a result, the Halo 3 trial download was one of the most downloaded game demos in the history of the Xbox 360. What many people don’t remember is that the Halo 3 trial download helped make another game – Crackdown.

But what does the Halo 3 demo download have to do with any other video game? Well, it has a great deal to do with the sale and marketing effort for a video that was originally meant for playing on the Xbox system. Microsoft had become worried that Crackdown would not sell well.

Therefore, they used a marketing tactic, the one of bundling Crackdown with an access code to the Halo 3 trial download. And it worked a treat because Crackdown sold 1.5 million copies within the first six months of its release. Those aren’t Halo 3 numbers, which sold 8.1 million copies in slightly over a year, but for a lesser well-known game that’s absolutely terrific.

Microsoft had resorted to the Halo 3 trial download tactic because of adverse opinions about the game from the play testers. They found the nonlinear nature of the game off-putting, often leaving them asking themselves what they were meant to be doing next.

As a result of this, the powers that be thought that something had to be done or the game would be a dud. It may appear dodgy practice at first to try to push sales of a game that’s expected to be unpopular, but in hindsight people like the game and it was a good thing that they were able to get the chance to play it.

In Crackdown, and that includes the version associated with the Halo 3 trial download, people play as an agent who is assigned to defeat the kingpins, or leaders, of different gangs. To do this they make use of some superhuman powers such as super strength and super agility. In order to gain these powers, players have to build up experience by defeating foes who then release experience orbs. The clever part of the system was that the kind of orbs released depended on the manner in which the agent killed the enemy. For instance, a firearms orb appears if the enemy was killed with a gun.

So, although at first sight this video bundled with the Halo 3 trail download appears to be nothing but a veiled marketing gimmick, in reality, it exposed gamers to an exciting new gameplay world.

If you like Halo 3 and are interested in finding out more about it, why not pop over to Halo 3 Info on our web site called Halo 3 Insider Secrets