Microsoft's "Halo: Reach" Launch Event

The Best Buy Theater’s first official event was the launch of “Halo: Reach,” published by Microsoft Games Studios for the XBox 360 console. This popular science fiction video game had hundreds of anxious fans waiting outside on line for the opportunity to buy the game at midnight. Once inside, the crowd was treated to a chance to meet the creators from Bungie, get autographs, buy the game, and even get a first chance to try it out one of the 50 gaming kiosks Best Buy brought in for the event.

Spike TV provided a crew and broadcasted live from the theater leading up to the midnight on-sale event. Arcadia provided support for the live feed, cooridinating fiber optic connectivinty to send the program feed out of the building without the need for a satelitte truck. “This was an exciting event to kick off the Best Buy Theater, and it was the first event that gave us the opportunity to operate our new HD system.,” Daniel Salimbene, founding partner of Arcadia New Media Services commented, “It was challenging to upgrade the entire house A/V system and to perfect the video displays to show off Halo’s amazing graphics, but at the end of the day, it looks amazing!.”

The launch was a huge success with first day sales of “Halo: Reach” hitting $200 million, a record for the franchise. There were larger then life Spartans, cybernetically-enhanced human super-soldiers that were spread out all over the venue. Kid Cudi performed a short set to send the crowd home for hours of gaming...