Halo 3 to save Xbox

The mission of Master Chief, the protagonist in the popular Halo trilogy of video games, is to save humanity from an army of aliens, reports Reuters.

If that's not enough to thrust on one person, he's got another task: rescue Microsoft's Xbox video game business from six years of losses and post it's first-ever profit.

Halo 3 hits stores on Tuesday and Microsoft projects first-day sales of the game to eclipse the $125 million mark set by its predecessor, saying it will be the biggest opening for any entertainment product.

According to IGN, a research group at DFC Intelligence is predicting the PC game market could swell to $13 billion by 2012. This would triple the amount of revenue reported in 2006, reports Gaming Today.

Much of the PC market's growth will come from online game revenue, including subscriptions, advertising and digital distribution, DFC said. In 2006, the PC game sector pulled in about $4.5 billion in revenue, according to past DFC reports.

DFC estimates the videogame market will swell to $47 billion by 2009, a 42% increase over the $33 billion generated by the industry in 2006.

EA Asia president Jon Niermann has labelled Japan a "strategic priority" as the firm looks to expand in the region, reports Next Generation.

Despite holding a 15% stake in The9 and a 19% stake in Neowiz, leading online gaming operators in China and Korea respectively, just 6% of EA's revenues are generated from the Asian market.

Japan is the second largest gaming market behind the US. "I think EA offers a great global distribution opportunity in terms of taking Japanese products to other parts of the world," said Niermann.