What do console players want most? Essentially, more of the same

Launching a new IP for consoles has always been quite a challenge. Historically, the space has been dominated by franchises and sequels, making it quite difficult for new ideas to stand out. Customers have always been drawn to franchises they're familiar with, and 2012 is proving no different, as a new survey from media research group Nielsen shows that nearly all of 2012's most anticipated console games are also the year's biggest sequels. Nielsen surveyed more than 4,800 players between the ages of 7 and 54 years old using a number of different metrics, and found that the most anticipated titles across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii were Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Just Dance 4, respectively. Other games that made the lists included Madden NFL 13, Assassin's Creed III, Borderlands 2, and numerous other major follow-ups. In fact, the only new IP titles in Nielsen's data were two Wii games: The Last Story, and Everyone Sing -- every other title in the survey data was either a sequel or a licensed property. Of course, this tendency toward old IP is nothing new, but recently, developers such as Eidos Montreal (Deus Ex: Human Revolution) head Stephane D'Astous have argued that publishers are putting even less emphasis on developing new IP, and are instead looking to overhaul their older, existing properties. For Nielsen's full list of the most-anticipated titles of 2012, visit the group's official blog.