With much focus since Black Friday being placed on hardware sales now that Nintendo's new console, the Wii U is out, we can't forget about the software that drives these units.

Minecraft, the indie PC sensation which launched a Notch-led empire, has seen similar success on its console debut, while Halo 4 helps the series hit a new milestone.

When the original Halo debuted in 2001 it broke records as the fast-selling game of that console generation, with half of Xbox owners purchasing the game alongside the system. Over a decade later, and the franchise - now in the hands of developer 343 Industries - is seeing similar success.

With the seven previous Halo games having sold approximately 46 million units, and Halo 4 topping 4 million, the franchise as a whole has now crossed the 50 million units sold milestone. With those sales numbers and every game in the series earning good to great critical response, it was a safe bet for 343 to begin development on Halo 5 before Halo 4 even hit store shelves.

After all, Halo 4 is just the beginning of The Reclaimer Trilogy, which will continue forward on the next-gen Xbox console.

As for game that embraces creativity over visual prowess, Minecraft continues its success story. As of today, according to the official Minecraft site, 8,248,062 have purchased the PC/Mac version of the game. Before even releasing, the beta version of Minecraft sold over 4 million.

In addition to being a top-seller on mobile platforms, in its first week on the Xbox 360, it sold over a million copies in July, breaking records as the best-selling digital game on the console. And that's for a version of the game missing a plethora of features from the PC versions.

Skip forward to present and Minecraft Xbox 360 has now sold nearly 4.5 million units (precisely 4,476,904 at the end of November). It averages 40-60,000 units sold per week so as of today, we can say it's crossed the 4.5 million mark.

Not only is it a top seller, but it's actively played. According the Xbox Live charts, Minecraft is the third most played game on the service, sitting currently behind Black Ops 2 and Halo 4. Smart exclusive pick-up by Microsoft? Absolutely.

Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.

Source: Gamasutra

Halo Minecraft image from UberDarKnight