Crysis 2, Killzone 3 and Bulletstorm are all games coming out over the next one to two months, and are all recieving quite a lot of hype from gamers. But which game is recieving the most attention?
Firstly looking at preorders from VGChartz and Amazon (US and UK). Based on VGChartz data, Bulletstorm is the clear leader here, with the Xbox 360 version (@ 93742) alone only narrowly being trumped by Killzone 3 (@ 94875) and all version of Crysis 2 combined (360 version highest preorders @ 30799).
Looking at the same sites Buzz Index (a measure of a games interest level) for each game gives a different perspective though, with Killzone 3 easily topping with a buzz of 10966. Overall, Crysis 2 trumps Bulletstorm to take second place with a combined buzz of 8049 while Bulletstorm brings it home with a combiend buzz of 5818. Based on Crysis 2's buzz index both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are recieving similar community interest despite a 360 exclusive beta and demo having been released (3100 vs 2994). However Bulletstorm on the 360 is obvisouly getting a huge boost from the inclusion of a Gears 3 beta code with the game, as its buzz is roughly three times higher on 360 than PS3.
Now turning to Amazon US and Killzone 3 is probably doing the best overall, currently sitting at 18th on the bestsellers chart, higher than any one Bulletstorm SKU (267th for PS3, 1543rd for PC and 32nd for 360), but potentially about the same overall. Crysis 2 again lags behind in last place (402nd for PS3, 1037th for PC and 371st for 360).
The story is a similar one over at Amazon UK. Killzone 3 is currently sitting in 94th. Crysis 2 has two versions running at roughly the same price. The standard edition (1764th for PS3, 710th for PC and 1864th for 360) is currently trailing the limited edition (696th for PS3, 500th for PC and 302nd for 360). Bulletstorm is clearly not as strong in the US with generally much lower placings (712th for PS3, 551st for PC and 209th for 360).
Finally, looking at Google Trends data, a slightly different picture is painted. Comparing the terms "crysis 2", "killzone 3", and "bulletstorm" using Google Trends over the last 12 months shows that Crysis 2 has the clear lead in terms of internet traffic as over the last 12 months it has averaged over twice the search volume as Killzone 3 and even more compared to Bulletstorm.
Narrowing the search to within the last 30 days only gives an even more interesting perspective. As recently as January 14 all three games were approxiametly tied in terms of their search volumes. Since then, all three games have had demo's announced and released (with the exception of KZ3 whose beta will be released tomorrow). The Killzone 3 open beta announcment on January 21 resulted in a minor spike in interest, with the games search volume increasing by roughly 75% over the next two days before returning to normal only three days later.
On the same day, a Crysis 2 multiplayer demo was announced on the same day, which resulted in a much higher increase in interest, of roughly 250% over the next 3 to 4 days, and following the demo's release on the 25th the spike more than doubled again by the 27th before decreasing by about 25% over the next three days.
Interestingly, the Bulletstorm demo announcment (back on January 14) gave only a negligible increase in search volume of around 10-15%. The release of the demo on the 25th across both consoles (the same day as Crysis 2's demo only on 360) did garner significantly more attention to the title than its announcement, with the resulting increase in search volume of around 300%, putting it at only half the level of Crysis 2.
So what does all this data mean? Nothing really, I just found it interesting how different sources can return such markedly different results.
Comparsion of the seach volumes by Google users for Crysis 2, Killzone 3 and Bulletstorm over the last 12 months. NB: I decided to include the terms KZ3 and KZ 3 in this to ensure that I not missing a significant percentage of searchs for the game. Source: Google Trends
Comparsion of the seach volumes by Google users for Crysis 2, Killzone 3 and Bulletstorm over the last 30 days. Source: Google Trends
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Modders are gonna hit the Switch 2 hard, and piracy is gonna be even higher on it than the first. That or 3rd party support will dry out sooner than later when enough people realize publishers don't wanna put in effort with physical releases on the system. People underestimate the casual consumer, when they feel screwed over they won't stick around like the fanboys. And with the astronomical prices of Switch 2 games I honestly can't see this succeed in the way Nintendo expects it to.
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neat i guess. but do the article again a week after the open beta of kz3 is released, then search the webs for buzz, and see the results and post em
Based on VGChartz data, ......... i stopped reading right there
Ignoring everything from VG Chartz...
First off only PS3 owners can get Killzone 3. Crysis and Bulletstorm will be brought across both platforms. Being a major KZ fan, I'll be picking up KZ3 at launch, the other two games can wait, but I'll still pick them up eventually.
I dont think Killzone 3 on its own on one console can hold off two new very hyped multiplatform games... adding to this they are both new IPs on console.