Analysts: Halo 3 shipping 4.2 million first week; Xbox may finally show profit

So there's this Halo 3 launch thing going on and it's apparently big, so big that firm Goldman Sachs projects it might actually bring Microsoft's Xbox division into "slight profitability." Analysts for the firm say that Microsoft will ship 4.2 million copies of Halo by the end of September. Even if all those were the normal $60 version that's still $252 million. Microsoft's fiscal quarter ends at the end of the week and the game is expected to bring in $170 million by then, meaning the Xbox division will have its first quarter of profitability since the launch of the original Xbox. It's back to black baby -- for now.

The September NPD numbers expected in mid October will be incredibly interesting in terms of the Halo effect. Halo 3 is guaranteed to be the top selling game (only an act of whatever deity you believe in could stop that at this point), but we're more interested to see the Xbox 360 sales figures. Goldman Sachs expects the momentum of the Halo launch to last well into next year. Wait, hold up ... are they saying Microsoft could have two profitable quarters in the Xbox's entertainment and devices division? *faint*

[Via GameDaily]