I don't think it will beat Pokemon D/P - although, maybe it will.

The gamestop by me has 400 pre-orders

Burning Crusade sold 2.7 million Worldwide in 24 hours, the odds of Halo 3 beating that are pretty slim (especially since Burning Crusade was released in U.S., Europe, and Australia on the same day) but even if it comes close it's still an achievement considering the base price for Halo 3 is $20 more than Burning Crusade.

(It's hard to figure out Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl because they were released in 2006 in Japan, and in different months in 2007 for U.S. and Europe... Plus their numbers always seem to be combined).

My EB/GS is now upto 455 preorders, and is ordering 500 to take care of pre-order demand.

Even though Burning Crusade sold 2.7m in 24hrs, it was worldwide. Halo3 might do near those numbers just in the US. Yes, the main market is the US, obviously, but it's close.

I thought the game will be released WW ?

when will it be released in europe ? japan ?

I predict 2M USA day 2.

For those that might interest it:

http://www.news.com/Xbox+tries+to+get+its+Halo+back/2100-1043_3-6209063.html

"But the real question is what the broader impact of Halo will be, particularly on sales of the Xbox 360. Kim said he has talked with retailers, some of whom expect 30 percent of early Halo 3 purchasers to also take home an Xbox 360.

"We're pretty convinced that a lot of Xbox 360s are going to get sold along with copies of Halo 3," Kim said.

Wedbush Morgan predicts that, spurred by Halo, Microsoft might sell 400,000 consoles for September, the most it would have sold in any non-holiday month since its launch. "

over 1 million people have preordered this game so i think 2 million in 3 days is very possible.

Wikipedia is your friend:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3

^NA 25 September 2007^[1]
EU 26 September 2007^[1]
JP 27 September 2007^[2]

I preordered my copy two days ago and was chatting with the manager at GameStop for a few minutes (I know him casually, decent guy, pretty straightforward) and he said they passed 500 preorders a week ago. He expects to see around 750-1000 by launch.

Keep in mind that within 6 miles of my house, there are TEN (!) Gamestops/EB games. They're everywhere. If each of them are pulling numbers close to that one (two are in the mall so it's unlikely), those are combining for some pretty scary numbers.