Halo 3 gives Microsoft confidence in Xbox 360 sales

Microsoft chief financial officer Chris Liddell believes Halo 3 will be a big system seller for the platform holder.

Speaking in a conference call following the release of Microsoft's Q3 financials, Liddell highlighted the importance of Halo 3.

"Halo 3 is clearly going to have a positive impact in two senses. One, it gives us more confidence in the number of consoles we think we're going to be able to sell next year, said Liddell. "In terms of the direct impact, obviously it's a first-party product so it's reasonably profitable from our point of view, and it will be several hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue next year."

Liddell also noted that Microsoft sold around 500,000 Xbox 360 consoles to retail during the quarter, with a slightly higher sell-through to customers.