Halo 3 beta amassed 350 terabytes of downloads

Redmond (WA) - Microsoft’s Halo 3 beta recently ended, and statistics show more than 12 million collective hours were logged into the game in its limited time frame.

Microsoft says more than 820,000 people joined in the beta frenzy. They put in a total of 12 million online gaming hours, and created 580,000 videos thanks to a new feature that lets players record their favorite battles onto the Xbox 360’s hard drive.

In addition, the game accounted for over 350 terabytes of downloads. That’s 350,000 gigabytes.

On the same note, Microsoft has licensed a whole slate of Halo 3 merchandise for the game’s September 25 debut. A limited edition wireless controller and headset will come out in September, followed by the latest Halo adventure book, Halo : Contact Harvest.

Marvel has also teamed up with Bungie to create a series of Halo comics, which will appear starting in July. Microsoft has also taken the Halo 3 frenzy into anoter one of its entertainment divisions to create the Halo 3 Zune, which it hopes will bring more attention to the flagging media device. The limited edition Zune goes on sale tomorrow.