I think that there could be something you are missing out on in your theories. People may not have the same access or even care to look at reviews or demos or even what the content could be like in games. There was a time where if I liked the cover of something I'd have it (when I was about 8 of course).

I'm only using logical guesses here, but World at War's huge success in sales could be due to the quality of the last CoD game. Consumers may have had more time to hear from friends or more chances to read how great CoD4 was or how many awards it got etc and therefore assume that the next installment in the series should equal that or better it.

Halo Wars, well that doesn't take much. Everyone knows the Halo series by now, perhaps even those parents trying to find a computer game for their kids but have no knowledge of games. Halo is synonymous with Xbox. Put Halo in the title of a game and I'm sure some people will buy it on that merit alone.

I believe that MS also was bragging about Too Human downloads, so those numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. Those 2 million people who might've downloaded it from the Halo Wars alone now know what the game is like, for better or for worse.

Halo Wars is a game that would probably have been better served by a demo released after launch, Sony-style.

Believe it or not, 3 of the 4 hardcore halo players I knew (and I mean multiplayer Halo was the pass time with their xbox) were also really into the story. They've read all the novels and such and continued to tell me minute details about whatever super soldier program that produced Master Chief, etc, etc.

I couldn't tell you much about it--except lots of kids probably died in the testing--since I've forgotten. But ya, people really get into the Halo Universe so the interest is probably from that angle.

The word "Halo" is in the title. Pair that with "Wars", another favorite videogame word and subject, and you've already garnered more immediate interest than the most expensive and inventive marketing campaign could ever bring.

I think most of those 2 million people will end up being pretty surprised that the game is an RTS. Though, that won't stop it from selling a million copies super quick.

The Halo Universe is pretty spiffy. They have a great theme song. The human military has neat stuff like Spartans and names their ships neat names like Pillar of Autumn. The Covenant have strange shiny vehicles and weapons. The Grunts are funny.

It's a good sandbox for action and melodrama.

Like SOMEDUDE, said, there are a lot of Halo fans that have gotten very involved in the story, and I'm one of them. In fact, my screen name here, Felipe 058 (which also happens to be my Xbox Live gamertag), is a reference to one of the Spartans from the novels. And if you were to go to the Bungie.net forums, which like any decent forum is a total crap-hole, you would find amongst the trolls, "noobs," and all-around jerkfaces a very large and dedicated community that actually does care.

Not being a native speaker, I had to look up "teabagging", and all I could find were references to a certain sexual practice, which implies that Tom is trying to throw a pretty heavy insult at Halo fanbase. Which strikes me as a rather odd thing to do in a gamer blog. :)

intelknight: yes, it's something you can simulate in a first person shooter with the dead corpse of an opponent, and the crouch button.

it's probably not so much an insult as a generalisation...

What tortoise said. Although I don't envy Mr. Knight the mental picture he must have gotten when he thought I meant Halo fans were *literally* teabagging each other!

Seriously, you can't play more than two online matches of Halo without--at the very least--witnessing a "tea-bagging" incident. If I get blown up by a random grenade, then the very next thing I expect is a gaggle of spartans "crouching" on my lifeless head. Par for the course, my friend.

I think it's a fairly accurate description of the Halo fan base, Intelknight.

Well, setting aside the whole T-bag discussion for now, I feel Halo Wars will be a good game, at least for me it will. I am a gamer who plays all types of games, from RTS's on computer like Rise of Nations and Age of Empires, to shooters on stations like Halo 1-3 and COD 4.
So, as you can see, when I heard news of a Halo RTS, I jumped on my computer and started searching for every little fact I could find about it. I found the short preview and pressed play.... To hear that my two favorite games were mashing, Halo and RON, it was unexpected. My mouth fell open and I just stared at the screen for a while.
Then, as you can guess, I was waiting up for the demo, and downloaded it as soon as I could. I will say I'm not too fond of the controls, but they are good enough to not turn me away. And when I finally got the handling down, I actually enjoyed the demo. To tell you the truth, I was really sceptical about this idea. I had played console RTS's before and they were disasterous, Halo Wars managed to keep me wanting to play, and I ended up restarting the demo 2 times.
Now, this is coming from a Halo and RTS fan so it may be a bit biased, but I liked the game, and I think at least a few others out there liked it too. I hope it sells big, so I don't feel too alone....

Oh, and I will agree, we Halo players Virtual T-Bag quite a lot. Lol, but I have even gone to other games and t-bagged, not just Halo. I tried it on SC 4 (Guard + Down) lol, and attempted on GOW but didn't feel right...

Thanks for the explanation. Can we like ... uhm ... delete my previous comment and everything that appeared after it? Or at least change to topic? Pretty please? Like Halo Wars vs. Dawn of War 2 vs. Starcraft 2?