Halo 3 Novel Becomes NYT Bestseller In First Week

Halo: Contact Harvest, the fifth book in a series of books based on the Halo game franchise, has made its New York Times Bestseller List debut, at #3, in its first week of sales, making it the second Halo novel to make the list. The novel, which went on sale nationwide on Tuesday, October 30th, also debuted on USA Today's Bestseller List at #23. Halo: Contact Harvest is written by Joseph Staten, Bungie Studios' lead writer and one of the Halo series' creators. The book is Staten's first novel, although he has done both writing and cinematic direction on all three Halo games. Halo: Contact Harvest details events in the Halo universe leading up to humanity's first encounter with the Covenant, and depicts the Human-Covenant war from the perspective of Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson, confidant and mentor of Halo hero Master Chief. Halo 3 took in $300 million in sales in its first week, $170 million of that amount within its first 24 hours, according to Microsoft. The company also notes that more than 2.7 million gamers played Halo 3 on Xbox Live in the first week, representing nearly one-third of the 7 million Xbox Live members worldwide.