In the 
4.5 billion years the earth has been around, about 108 billion humans have walked its surface. In the 11 years Halo has been around, a small subset of those humans have killed each other more than 136 billion times.
As Bungie says goodbye to the franchise that brought it fame and fortune, the game developer has released some statistics detailing the dedication of its massive fan base. And the numbers are staggering.
“Halo: Reach” players are getting
some more maps.
The “Halo: Reach” Defiant Map Pack goes live today, with two new multiplayer maps, a firefight mission and new achievements letting players earn up to 150 Microsoft Points.
Read more (and learn how to win free codes) at Variety’s Technotainment blog
Even “Halo: Reach” couldn’t bring 
the video game industry out of its slump in September.
Software sales at retail stores were down a shocking 6 percent last month to $614 million, according to The NPD Group. That’s vastly worse than analysts were expecting and could scare investors, who were holding out hope that September would be a bright spot in an otherwise dismal year for game sales.
The consensus among 
analysts and industry observers was that strong sales of “Halo: Reach” would be enough to bring video game sales into positive territory in September.
The consensus was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog
If all goes according to plan, the video game industry could see its first positive sales growth since March in September—but in a year that has been filled with disappointing results, game publishers and developers know any plan is tentative at best.
Analysts expect software sales to be up slightly in September, largely on the strength of Microsoft’s “Halo: Reach,” which took in $200 million in its first 24 hours. No one is expecting a blowout month, though. Wedbush Securities is forecasting a rise of just 2.4 percent compared to last year’s $649 million.
So now it’s official: Microsoft’s first-person behemoth Halo: 
Reach is the year’s biggest entertainment event,generating $200 million in sales in just 24 hours in the United States alone.
That’s two-thirds of what Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 took in from the North American and U.K. markets in its first day last year, but it’s still a number that’s nothing to sneeze at. The one-day take already eclipses the three-day opening weekends of “Iron Man 2,” “Toy Story 3” and “Alice in Wonderland.”
Prequels rarely resonate with audiences – regardless 
of the medium. So when Bungie Studios decided to make its last “Halo” game a prequel, there was some cause for concern.
Thankfully, those fears were misplaced. While the final chapter of “Halo: Reach” is something well known to any fan of the franchise, the game itself is perhaps the best in “Halo’s” nine-year history. And it’s a fitting sendoff for the developer, who is responsible for creating and growing one of the biggest series in the video game industry.
The holiday season kicks off tonight for gamers. At 12:01am
, “Halo Reach,” the first blockbuster of the fall/winter goes on sale. It will lead the charge of a densely packed 3.5-month period of major game releases that will determine how 2010 turns out for the video game industry.
Now, normally, you wait for sales numbers before calling a release a blockbuster – but when you’re dealing with a new action-based “Halo” game, you can skip the formality. The franchise has sold over 34 million copies and consumed 3.3 billion hours of gameplay (that’s over 376,000 years, if you’re keeping score at home) since its launch with the original Xbox.
When “Halo: Reach” goes on sale at 12:01 am Tuesday morning, it won’t just be the biggest gaming event of the year to date. It will likely be the entertainment industry’s biggest moment of the year.
Microsoft is betting big on the latest installment of its flagship franchise, and it has every reason to do so. Life to date, the company has sold more than 34 million ‘Halo’ games – and each major new release has shattered any Day One sales records set by the film, music or gaming industries.
Chris Morris: Journalist 