Kind of a neat new feature that takes page views and time on pages and other stuff to come up with a "Top 10" for the Week per IGN's readership.
The first weeks results:
And their summary:
My thoughts:
1. Behold the power of the Halo franchise. Halo Wars is a new game (not a sequal, unknown quantity) and an RTS on a Console--it has everything theoretically going against it. But slapping the Halo name on it (it isn't even made by Bungie!) and the fans come screaming for more. Master Chief meet Mario, Mario meet Master Chief.
2. X06 was as success. 8 out of 10 is very good, especially when you hold the top 5 and both your competitors have building the hype machines for their new platform releases next month. Obviously there was good word of mouth about the new games and links directing people to IGN for media and information.
3. PS3 and Wii fans need not fret. These numbers are obviously skewed by X06. Although I would have expected a little more after effect from TGS and more of a "halo" effect (hehe) from the impending PS3 and Wii releases, X06 is a big show and MS seems to have been able to get the word out (Live?). We should see similar flip flops with Spaceworld and the Sony October event. Now if these results become a trend, then it would be interesting. But for now, chalk it up to X06.
4. No PS3 killer app at launch? Am I contradicting myself? Not really. The PS3 has a number of nice looking launch titles that should sell well with some big guns coming out in early 2007, but there is no real killer app (lest the PS3 hardware itself! And BluRay...) A couple of Nintendo's big dogs, Zelda and Super Smash Brothers, broke the Top 10 and weathered the X06 onslaught. But not a single PS3 title, let alone a launch title, did so. Which re-affirms my general sentiment that the PS3 launch software is looking very similar to the Xbox 360 launch software (in a general way): Lots of quality and variety, but nothing that grabs you as "This is it! This is the PS3 experience!". (My opinion of course). Expect DeanoC and nAo to solve this problem shortly
Anyhow, it is interesting that 2 Wii titles were able to break the Top 10.
5. New games generating solid interest. It kills me seeing great, innovative titles get ignored when the sequals gets all the attention. Obviously sequals (e.g. Splinter Cell) have a fan base, which sells mags and has a ready-made user base to sell to and build upon, but it often comes at the expense of newer titles. All of the top 5 are totally new. I am especially happy to see Bioshock at #4. Being a H1 2007 title it may not get the sales attention it seems to deserve. The developer has had a history of innovation and it would be great to see their unique twist on the FPS genre get some momentum to get Publishers to give the green light to other dev houses to think outside the box to compete. Obviously some of these games could flop and most will under deliver in some way or another (all do!), but I like the trend of seeing developers spreading their wings!
I don't want to read into this too much (probably already have), but I think this is a neat new thing by IGN. Obviously it is limited by their demographic of users and current events and whatnot, but it could be a nice tool to see what the readership, of the biggest game site around, is spending their time looking at.
The first weeks results:
And their summary:
My thoughts:
1. Behold the power of the Halo franchise. Halo Wars is a new game (not a sequal, unknown quantity) and an RTS on a Console--it has everything theoretically going against it. But slapping the Halo name on it (it isn't even made by Bungie!) and the fans come screaming for more. Master Chief meet Mario, Mario meet Master Chief.
2. X06 was as success. 8 out of 10 is very good, especially when you hold the top 5 and both your competitors have building the hype machines for their new platform releases next month. Obviously there was good word of mouth about the new games and links directing people to IGN for media and information.
3. PS3 and Wii fans need not fret. These numbers are obviously skewed by X06. Although I would have expected a little more after effect from TGS and more of a "halo" effect (hehe) from the impending PS3 and Wii releases, X06 is a big show and MS seems to have been able to get the word out (Live?). We should see similar flip flops with Spaceworld and the Sony October event. Now if these results become a trend, then it would be interesting. But for now, chalk it up to X06.
4. No PS3 killer app at launch? Am I contradicting myself? Not really. The PS3 has a number of nice looking launch titles that should sell well with some big guns coming out in early 2007, but there is no real killer app (lest the PS3 hardware itself! And BluRay...) A couple of Nintendo's big dogs, Zelda and Super Smash Brothers, broke the Top 10 and weathered the X06 onslaught. But not a single PS3 title, let alone a launch title, did so. Which re-affirms my general sentiment that the PS3 launch software is looking very similar to the Xbox 360 launch software (in a general way): Lots of quality and variety, but nothing that grabs you as "This is it! This is the PS3 experience!". (My opinion of course). Expect DeanoC and nAo to solve this problem shortly
Anyhow, it is interesting that 2 Wii titles were able to break the Top 10.5. New games generating solid interest. It kills me seeing great, innovative titles get ignored when the sequals gets all the attention. Obviously sequals (e.g. Splinter Cell) have a fan base, which sells mags and has a ready-made user base to sell to and build upon, but it often comes at the expense of newer titles. All of the top 5 are totally new. I am especially happy to see Bioshock at #4. Being a H1 2007 title it may not get the sales attention it seems to deserve. The developer has had a history of innovation and it would be great to see their unique twist on the FPS genre get some momentum to get Publishers to give the green light to other dev houses to think outside the box to compete. Obviously some of these games could flop and most will under deliver in some way or another (all do!), but I like the trend of seeing developers spreading their wings!
I don't want to read into this too much (probably already have), but I think this is a neat new thing by IGN. Obviously it is limited by their demographic of users and current events and whatnot, but it could be a nice tool to see what the readership, of the biggest game site around, is spending their time looking at.
