January 21st, 2012 
Owen Jones The completion of Halo 3 was wildly awaited, as the game was the third in the original trilogy of the Halo games. As a result, the Halo 3 free download was one of the most downloaded video game demos in the history of the Xbox 360. But what many people don’t realize is that the Halo 3 trial download helped make another game ie Crackdown.
But what does the Halo 3 demo download have to do with any other video game? Well, it has a lot to do with the sale and marketing effort for a video that was originally planned for release on the Xbox system. Microsoft had become concerned that Crackdown would not sell a lot.
Therefore, they used a marketing tactic, the one of bundling Crackdown with an access code for the Halo 3 trial download. And it worked a treat in that Crackdown sold 1.5 million copies within the first half year of its release. Those aren’t Halo 3 numbers, which sold 8.1 million copies in just over a year, but for a lesser well-known game that’s absolutely terrific.
Microsoft had turned to the Halo 3 trial download tactic because of poor opinions about the game from the play testers. They found the nonlinear nature of the game confusing, often leaving them asking themselves what they were supposed to be doing next.
Because of this, the powers that be thought that something had to be done or the game would be a loser. 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 bundled with the Halo 3 free download, people play as an agent who is assigned to defeat the kingpins, or leaders, of various gangs. To do this they use some superhuman powers such as super strength and super agility. In order to gain these powers, players have to build up experience by beating foes who then release experience orbs. The clever part of the system was that the kind of orbs released depended on the method 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 game bundled with the Halo 3 free download seems to be no more than a veiled marketing trick, in reality, it exposed gamers to an exciting new gameplay experience.
If you like Halo 3 and are interested in finding out more about it, why not pop over to Halo 3 Info on our website called Halo 3 Insider Secrets
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