Gears of War 3 passes 1 million pre-orders

Microsoft and Epic Games have today announced that Gears of War 3 surpassed one million worldwide pre-orders. This makes the game the fastest title to reach this milestone on the platform.

According to official stats for the recent beta, 1.29 million people from more than 143 countries participated in the beta, 249 years worth of matches were played and more than 11 million matches were completed.

"An overwhelming success - we can't thank the fans enough," said Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszinski. "While the beta was a fun way to give players an early taste of our game, it also provided us with invaluable feedback to help us refine and polish 'Gears of War 3' to ensure it's truly the culmination of the trilogy we promised to the fans."

Gears of War 3 is available for pre-order in three editions - Standard (£49.99), Limited (£59.99) and Epic (£99.99) and will be launch on September 20th 2011.