What did Insomniac do in that respect when they decided 60fps didn't win any interest?
They did an incredibly biased study of review scores and a very biased poll. I also think they excluded the COD games. They did not test anything. Their study also did not seem to take into account that various genres benefit more from higher fps.
If you want to test 30 vs 60 fps you do the following:
1: Make a 60 fps and a 30 fps version of your game. Strip down graphics, resolution etc on the 60 fps version if needed or just use the PC version of your game.
2: Test both versions on players. Do not tell them the difference, just tell them there are some differences in the two versions.
3: Ask the players to grade their enjoyment of the game. You can also ask them what they thought of graphics, how easy the game was to control and other stuff. For extra points, hook them up to biometrics like Trumbull did.
Has there been any published studies using this method?