Gears of War 3 sells 3 million copies in first week

Gears party! Gears party!

That’s a thing we still say around the office, or at least the old timers do. Its origins are old — Ron Workman-era old. There was one event way back that we were all at where Ron would not stop talking about an evening Gears of War game party. Every few minutes he’d mention it: He was going to do this at the “Gears party,” he would talk to that person at the “Gears party.” He was going to blow bubbles and do handstands with Cliffy B at the “Gears party.” We got so tired of hearing about this party that we began mocking him: Gears party!

Sometimes I miss that guy.

This whole month has been a sort of a Gears party with the Gears of War 3 launch. We’ve learned that Gears of War 3 sold more than 3 million copies in its first week. Major Nelson says that the title is now the biggest game of 2011, and that the franchise has moved beyond one billion dollars in lifetime sales.

Congrats to Epic and Microsoft. Maybe you guys should have a…