Microsoft is crowing this morning about Gears of War 3 becoming the fastest pre-ordered video game in history, which is one of the silliest-sounding records any marketing team has ever claimed for a game, up there with whenever some suit decides to wrap a game in tin foil and declare it the shiniest game ever.
But below the details in a morning press release about Gears 3 earning more than a million pre-orders—possibly because that was the Most Cost Effective way to get into the Beta instead of buying $60 Bulletstorm—there are some nifty stats:
The beta lasted four weeks and was played by 1.29 million gamers. They played more than 11 million matches (totaling some 249 years of cumulative playing time). They performed more than 927 million kills. Of those, they performed more than 131 million executions.
There were more than 23 million deaths by chainsaw, nearly 23 billion bullets fired (not in this match!)
Some 435,000 people unlocked a Thrashball Cole skin and 234,000 got the Gold Retro Lancer. Both of those items were exclusive to the beta but can be used in the finished game.
Now, aren't those numbers more impressive than some pre-order figures?
Gears of War 3 will be out for the Xbox 360 on September 20.