[DonkeyKongSr]

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This is what I really don't understand.

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Marketing is what you don't understand.

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Wow, thanks for clearing that up!

Now in all of your wisdom, please enlighten me. Why is it a smart idea to target a demographic that already has a high adapatation rate while [relatively] ignoring another very fluid demographic that has virtually no adaptation rate?

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Sorry, I typed out many, many different answers and deleted them all. I thought I was getting too complex or whatever. I work in advertising at a company that has a video game account. I know this stuff. Let's see if I can keep this simple:

Marketing Halo 3 has nothing to do with marketing other games. Microsoft wants Halo 3 to be the most popular FPS of all time. They want to keep feeding the hype machine to make sure that happens. And thusly, XBox 360 will remain the premier FPS console. They'll find other games to hype the hell out of to get that other audience you are talking about.

In addition, assuming you have a consumer base that is a lock is the most retarded thing you can do in marketing. Think Coca Cola. They spend out the ass, but it's not wasted money. You need to remain top of mind. You may have loyal customers, but if you can convince them to take action quicker, you improving your bottom line ("Oooh, I am running low on Coke. I should go to the store."). Microsoft doesn't want their audience to think, "Ah, I'll get it someday." They want "I'm going to get it on launch day and tell all my friends to get it so we can play on Live."

Bad idea #2 is assuming there is no other audience out there than your regular audience. Not everyone jumps into a series from edition 1. There are plenty of people that will start on Halo 3 because of the hype they've heard. Plus, this will be the first Halo for XBox 360. Not everyone with a 360 owned an original XBox. There still are many, many people that haven't played Halo that will love Halo 3 if you let them know it's there.

Sorry for the short answer earlier, none of my other answers were as concise as this one.