Microsoft made $400 million from 'Halo 5' in one week

Microsoft has announced that "Halo 5: Guardians" brought in over $400 million (£260 million) during its first week on sale, bringing the total amount generated by the franchise to $5 billion (£3.2 billion).

According to Microsoft, the game is "the fastest-selling Xbox One exclusive game to-date" resulting in more than 21 million hours of gameplay, 12 million of which came from the campaign mode.

The company will likely be buoyed by this news after Phil Spencer, the executive in charge of Xbox, said that Sony has "a big lead" with the PlayStation 4. While Microsoft doesn't Xbox announce sales, they are expected to be significantly less than the four million consoles Sony shipped in Q3 2015.

Xbox is a key part of Satya Nadella's plan for Microsoft, and the "Halo" franchise is one of the key reasons that users would want to buy one over Sony's offering.