Gears Of War 3 Beta Saw 1.29M Players, 1M Pre-orders

Epic Games' upcoming shooter Gears of Wars 3 saw over 1.29 million players take part in the multiplayer beta over the course of four weeks. With the full release scheduled for September 20, the beta had fans from 145 countries playing over 11 million multiplayer matches, clocking in at around 249 years worth of collective play, according to Epic. The beta was "an overwhelming success," says Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszinski. "While 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." Epic also divulged a number of other interesting statistics regarding the beta. Over 927 million kills were recorded, while nearly 23 billion bullets were fired. The developer also noted that the Microsoft-published Gears of Wars 3 is now the fastest pre-ordered Xbox exclusive title ever, having already surpassed 1 million pre-orders worldwide. "It is one of the few times in our history that we’ve seen a title hit this level of pre-order numbers four months out from launch" said Bob McKenzie, senior VP of merchandising at game retailer GameStop.