Following the announcement of its gamer behavior and intent tracking tool GamePlan, market research firm OTX has provided Gamasutra with specific data on the most-anticipated upcoming games -- with Bungie's Halo 3: ODST and Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII topping the "purchase intent" list.
In addition to aggregating data provided by partners including game rental firm GameFly and eBay data provider AERS, OTX has operated its own GamePlan Consumer Tracker since October 2008, collecting data on 600 games from a pool of 25,000 gamers.
That information is gathered by OTX's "multi-source sampling" method, which polls players in the United States across hundreds of online panels.
OTX gaming director Nick Williams headed up development of GamePlan. Previously, he worked at IGN on the company's GamerMetrics service.
GamerMetrics has similar end goals to GamePlan -- providing publishers and other game companies with projections of consumer behavior and trends -- but gathers its data from IGN Entertainment's own network of sites.
Williams told Gamasutra that that more insular method can lead to misleading information in cases where a particular site's readership are disproportionately interested in a game, such as with PlatinumGames and Sega's violent Wii brawler MadWorld.
"GamerMetrics is great, but you run across examples like MadWorld," he said. "If you were basing your information off how MadWorld was doing on IGN, you would think it was going to sell millions in the first couple weeks, whereas in reality it was much more a niche title."
The following lists come specifically from OTX's own data, and refer to gamer intent as stated between February 22, 2009 and March 28, 2009.
more here
I almost agree with this.
In addition to aggregating data provided by partners including game rental firm GameFly and eBay data provider AERS, OTX has operated its own GamePlan Consumer Tracker since October 2008, collecting data on 600 games from a pool of 25,000 gamers.
That information is gathered by OTX's "multi-source sampling" method, which polls players in the United States across hundreds of online panels.
OTX gaming director Nick Williams headed up development of GamePlan. Previously, he worked at IGN on the company's GamerMetrics service.
GamerMetrics has similar end goals to GamePlan -- providing publishers and other game companies with projections of consumer behavior and trends -- but gathers its data from IGN Entertainment's own network of sites.
Williams told Gamasutra that that more insular method can lead to misleading information in cases where a particular site's readership are disproportionately interested in a game, such as with PlatinumGames and Sega's violent Wii brawler MadWorld.
"GamerMetrics is great, but you run across examples like MadWorld," he said. "If you were basing your information off how MadWorld was doing on IGN, you would think it was going to sell millions in the first couple weeks, whereas in reality it was much more a niche title."
The following lists come specifically from OTX's own data, and refer to gamer intent as stated between February 22, 2009 and March 28, 2009.
more here
I almost agree with this.