Microsoft must be confident in early Gears of War 3 sales numbers, because the company has announced a new initiative to have "live" TV ads market the game. What this means is that during commercials, Microsoft will display the current number of players online in what we can only assume is an attempt to entice people who only want to play games that a lot of other people are playing.

The ad campaign kicks off on September 23 and will run until October 3 in six different 30-second advertisements. Stephen McGill, Microsoft UK Xbox marketing director, says Microsoft is spending the big bucks to advertise Gears. "It is on the scale of what we did for Halo Reach and Halo 3 -- television is the main centrepiece of the campaign."

Gears of War 3 launches worldwide today.

[Thanks, ugotamesij.]