Who would have thought people would enjoy sawed-off shotguns so much? Gears of War 3 has become the fastest pre-ordered title in Xbox 360 history and has broken 1 million orders.
The milestone was achieved as a result of the multiplayer beta that ended on May 15, with an impressive 1.29 million players who participated. Considering the game is still four months from official release, that's an especially big deal.
The Gears of War 3 beta also logged some very impressive stats in the 4 weeks it ran, not only giving players a chance to sample the game's multiplayer before launch, but also providing valuable feedback for Epic Games - to give them data to help improve what they can before release.
Over 11 million matches were played, totaling around 249 years of combined play, when gamers got to sample the redesigned adversarial multiplayer modes: Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, and Capture the Leader. Cliff Bleszinski, Epic Games' Design Director commented on the success of the beta:
"We can’t thank the fans enough. The beta was a fun way to give players an early taste of our game, it also provided us with invaluable feedback to help us refine and polish ‘Gears of War 3’ to ensure it’s truly the culmination of the trilogy we promised to the fans.”
The stats from the beta are impressive, in and of themselves, and the 1.29 million players were busy during their time online and logged a myriad of notable stats.
- 1.29 million people participated in the beta
- 145 different countries participated in the beta
- 249 years worth of matches played
- More than 11 million matches completed
- More than 927 million kills recorded
- More than 131 million executions performed
- More than 23 million deaths by chainsaw
- Nearly 23 BILLION bullets fired
- 4.9 billion ribbons and 291 million medals earned
- 435,000 people earned the beta-exclusive Thrashball Cole skin to use in the retail game when it launches in September
- 234,000 people earned the beta-exclusive Gold Retro Lancer to use in the retail game when it launches in September
Remember, while the numbers might not seem all that impressive, they come from a brief beta. Just goes to show how popular peppering online friends with a shotgun is.
Game Rant has also contributed a hefty amount of play time to the beta - including a tournament victory held by Microsoft Canada. It's good to know that we had a hand in some of the stats, especially the kills section.
While multiplayer is a big portion of the Gears of War 3 experience, the series' campaign will be just as important - and the third game will bring an end to this particular segment of the universe. Worry not, just because this trilogy is ending, the series will be continuing in its own way. There are still stories to be told and more Locust soldiers to kill.
Gears of War 3 will be releasing September 20, 2011 exclusively for Xbox 360.
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