I didn’t get wrapped up in the frenzy of the pre-sales Halo 3 marketing hype. It was fun to watch the game show up in USA Today and other major papers a few days before launch and it seemed like a well executed marketing and PR plan.

The afternoon on the day the game was available, I calmly walked into the local Fry’s, picked up my copy and walked out without seeing a single soul buying another copy. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was hoping for something a little different. Maybe a marching band or something otherwise exciting to make the experience more memorable.

Halo 3 is fun and after a few hours I wanted more. Nice that my expectations were rewarded and the early press wasn’t all hype.

Now if I could just figure out how to stop the “red checkered pattern of pixels from covering the screen” and then the associated system hang…

I just finished up 3 days of talking to a random sample of kids (8 to 14 yrs old) from the Los Angeles area about how math is used in developing video games.

One of the cool parts about doing this sort of work is that I get to find out from the kids which machines they have and they games they are most anticipating.

What I found:

1. Seems like an even split between kids claiming to have Xbox360 machines vs Wii machines at home. It was extremely rare to find someone claiming to have a PS3 at home.

2. Most the boys had all heard of Halo and knew that Halo 3 was coming out soon, with the older boys showing the most excitement about it.

3. As a group, the boys also were very much waiting for Smash Brothers Brawl as well. The younger aged boys in the group there held as much interest in Smash Bros as the older ones did for Halo. They also seemed to have more certainty that they would actually be allowed to play Smash Brothers Brawl (as opposed to the uncertainty that their parents would allow them to play Halo).

4. There was confusion about which platforms are needed for which games. The confusion was painfully clear with one student saying he would buy a Wii just to play Halo3. Anyone else see an opportunity here?

5. The girls that attended the event were barely interested in Halo 3 at all, but had a fair amount of interest in Mario Galaxy. None of them had ever heard of Spore.

6. One of the adults helping organize the event mentioned having a PS3 at home that would likely soon be turned into a media server because it wasn’t being used for gaming. Another mentioned that they might buy the PS3 and use it as a “Blue Ray player that just happens to also play games”.

Draw conclusions as you will, but there’s nothing like interacting with hundreds of kids to find out what is on their mind about gaming.