Comment: Were Consumers Duped into Buying Halo Wars?

Halo Wars is selling record numbers for a console RTS, but is this simply due to misadvertisement and free give-aways?

Let me preface this analysis (I will repeat this in the conclusion) that this is in no way a slight to the quality of Ensemble Studio's game.

Halo Wars managed to debut at number two in the UK All Formats Chart, becoming the fastest selling real-time strategy game on the Xbox 360, outselling Command and Conquer 3's launch 3 to 1.

That's not to say that the RTS genre isn't otherwise popular; Empire: Total War managed to knock Killzone 2 off the top spot this week. However, the genre is generally seen to be console unfriendly.

So this RTS happens to be a Halo game. Microsoft's traditionally first-person shooter franchise broke sales records with Halo 3, surpassing one million copies in the UK alone. Halo has a massive following and FPS games generally do incredibly well - Call of Duty: World at War has retained and regained its UK top spot week after week, with its 2007 predecessor even re-entering the UK top twenty in 2009.

Thus, it's clear Xbox gamers love FPS games, but do they really want to play a real-time strategy game? In fact, do they know they're buying a real-time strategy game? It's highly possible that a considerable percentage of Halo fans saw Halo Wars on the shelf and thought it was a new entry in the best selling FPS series (perhaps Halo ODST) and decided to snap it up without a second thought. The TV commercial (watch it below) doesn't help either, since it deliberately suggests that the game is 'just' another Halo FPS.

Of course, consumers can't be that naive: They look on the back of the box; they download the demo; they must know Halo Wars is an RTS. Or do they? There's plenty of unconfirmed reports that suggest consumers bought Halo Wars unawares and subsequently returned the game after a quick dabble.

In reality there are such things as uninformed buyers who purchase because of a well-known name or an exciting trailer (Sonic and Mario at the Olympics, check). That's why CGI trailers are so popular with video game publishers in the US - they successfully dupe consumers.

Then there's the fact that Halo Wars achieved the top spot in Australia and New Zealand. It was a close call, but many are citing a Microsoft give-away as the reason for the success down-under. Halo Wars is given away free with every Xbox 360 console until the end of March.

If the game was included in a bundle it wouldn't be counted in Gfk's sales numbers, but the rumour goes that since Halo Wars is given separately to the console itself, the games are counted as standalone sales. In fact, there are reports of people buying the console and then trading the unopened Halo Wars for full price in the region - this will give you a very tasty discount on that Xbox 360 down-under.

Therefore, an argument for Halo Wars' sales performance being the result of give-aways and duped consumers could build a convincing case. But the argument is not watertight. If consumers believed Halo Wars was another Halo FPS, then the game would have been top of the worldwide chart, selling one million in the UK alone. Moreover, you could look at the Halo Wars give-away in a different light; if Halo Wars is making people buy the Xbox 360, then the game is a system seller...

Furthermore, we can be even more optimistic. There are those who have never played or bought an RTS game, but took the jump with Halo Wars and are now having an absolute blast. Here Microsoft has done gamers a service. They've converted previous RTS-skeptics into RTS-fans. So who cares whether they knew what they were buying or not, they're now converted to console RTS gaming. In fact, maybe that's why Empire: Total War did so well - Halo Wars buyers enjoyed it so much that they wanted some more. Go Halo, I say.

So were Halo Wars buyers duped into the purchase? Does it matter? Are you an RTS virgin converted by Ensemble Studios last offering? Tell us in the comments section.



Patrick Steen

---

Find more about Halo Wars on its Gamezine game page