As the UK-based director of Xbox and Entertainment at Microsoft, it's Stephen McGill's job to boast about upcoming games, even ones that seem to have the whole "hype" thing in the bag. "We have huge expectations," McGill said of Halo: Reach, speaking to Eurogamer at a launch event. Those expectations are so huge, that he expects it to outsell Activation's biggest first-person shooter, Call of Duty: Black Ops. "More than 34 million people have bought [a Halo game] and those people are going to want to play Halo: Reach. We're going to do incredibly well," McGill said. What are Halo's chances, a platform-exclusive game, at besting a franchise that's only increased in popularity (and earnings) with each iteration? Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter suspects it'll be a "tossup" between the shooters on the Xbox 360, but believes there's "no chance" for Halo: Reach to surpass Black Ops overall. "If Halo does outsell Black Ops, it will be a wonderful thing for the industry, since it will ensure that we have a really big holiday," Pachter told Joystick. "I think Halo could penetrate 25 percent of the Xbox 360 installed base, putting it on par with the last four GTA games, but COD has an addressable market that is 50 percent bigger, so it only needs 18 percent penetration."
