How’s The Hype – The Exclusives
How’s The Hype is a regular feature focused on the impact games are making in the wonderful world of ‘search’, using Google Trends to gather precious data we take a look at the titles Gamers are really keeping their eye on.
The Challengers
Sony, Microsoft and even Nintendo have a great line-up set for the holiday season, with Driveclub, Halo, and Super Smash Bros all out within the space of just 6 weeks, the commercial battle is going to be fierce. Though the question on everyone’s mind is who will come out on top? Where does the interest lie? While the Playstation 4 certainly has the edge on its competitors with 10 million units sold – will that transfer into sales for arguably the weakest exclusive line-up of the year?
At this moment in time the figures suggest the hype seems to sit with Nintendo and Super Smash Brothers, based on the immense strength of the franchise, this isn’t all that surprising. As Sunset Overdrive and Driveclub are new IPs they lack the dedicated fan base to kick up a fuss, although both certainly have potential in the future. Meanwhile LittleBigPlanet while unique, has never been a commercial powerhouse. That just leaves the Master Chief Collection which although admittedly looks great fun and a worthy investment, is in essence a glorified remake anthology.
Silver Lining for a Depressed Nintendo?
Despite struggling in the console market with the oddity that is the Wii U, it must be uplifting for Nintendo to see so much interest in one of their last blockbuster franchises to hit the ailing console.
If we take a look at the data for each next gen competitor over the last 3 months we begin to see just how far they’ve fallen behind with their tablet-console hybrid.
While Nintendo can certainly claim to have the ‘must have’ blockbuster in Super Smash Brothers this Christmas, the inability to access said title will hinder sales. Nintendo can only hope this is the game fans have been waiting for and that the wonderfully unique fighter will finally justify taking the plunge and the purchase of a Wii U.
A Worrisome Future?
Looking to the future both Sony and Microsoft have a powerful selection of blockbusters lined up to reinforce their respective portfolios, unfortunately Nintendo on the other hand lacks such an line-up. Taking the biggest exclusive from each platform holder set for release for 2015 we can see the difference in anticipation.
Unsurprisingly Halo 5 leads the way, creating significantly more interest than both Uncharted 4 and Zelda Wii U. As arguably the most mainstream franchise of three it’s easy to appreciate why, although once Nintendo start to really push Zelda don’t be surprised to see Link usurp the Master Chief before release. Of course much of this will be dictated by the sales of each respective console, if the Xbox One manages to replicate the PS4’s sales then you can expect the Master Chief to soar off into the distance.
* All data is collected via the Google Trend tool set.
DISCLAIMER
Remember this information must be taken with a pince of salt, Google Trends focuses specifically on key words used on Google search engines and as such alternative terms have the potential to skew the results.
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