Microsoft's videogames have had more fits than starts. Its console, the two-year-old Xbox, loses something like $100 per unit sold, or a billion dollars a year. Xbox had a disastrous launch in Japan and still runs far behind Sony's PlayStation 2 in worldwide sales. But the game's not over. Witness the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, the gaming industry's annual confab in May. For the goateed and backpack-toting attendees, E3 is a big, honking sneak peek at the next killer games, and Microsoft had the best of them all: Halo 2, the sequel to its 2001 sci-fi action masterpiece. People waited hours in line just to see the eight-minute demonstration. "It's one of our most ambitious projects," says Robert (Robbie) Bach, the Microsoft senior vice president in charge of Xbox. "It's a title that will sell anytime, anyplace."
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