Mass Effect Tops Q2 2007 In IGN GamerMetrics Report

IGN Entertainment has released its latest GamerMetrics report, showing BioWare's upcoming Xbox 360 exclusive Mass Effect as the most anticipated title for 2007's second quarter, and Fable 2 as the most popular title showcased during GDC. The GamerMetrics list gauges reader interest in games through surveys and user activity on IGN's sites, including IGN.com, TeamXbox.com and Fileplanet.com. Looking at the 2007 Game Developers Conference, covered in depth by Gamasutra, the GamerMetrics report found that Lionhead and Microsoft's upcoming Fable 2 was the number one most requested game on IGN during the event, thanks to Peter Molyneux's talk at the event. Additionally, titles for the PlayStation 3, which had a strong showing during GDC, also drew considerable consumer interest - with five PS3 releases making it onto the 'most-awaited' top 20 chart for the week, and LittleBigPlanet ranked tenth. However, Home, the PlayStation 3's upcoming virtual community announced during GDC, ranked fifth in reader anticipation, beating out upcoming heavyweights such as Super Mario Galaxy (sixth) and Halo 3 (seventh). Other notable future games releases during the week of GDC included Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 for the Xbox 360 in the second spot, followed by Super Paper Mario for the Wii, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for next-gen platforms. Overall, across all platforms surveyed, which includes PlayStation 2, PSP, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, and PC, the most wanted game expected to debut in Q2 2007 is Microsoft and BioWare's upcoming Xbox 360 exclusive Mass Effect. The upcoming Xbox 360 release of Guitar Hero II and Nintendo's Super Paper Mario for the Wii ranked as the second and third place titles. Xbox 360 exclusive Forza Motorsport 2 and Mario Party 8 for the Wii rounded out the top five in as the fourth and fifth most wanted games for the coming quarter. On the Xbox 360, Mass Effect, Guitar Hero II, and Forza Motorsport 2 claimed the top three spots for the console specific list, with SouthPeak's upcoming “persistent online RPG” Two Worlds nabbing the fourth spot. Starbreeze's comic-based next-gen effort The Darkness, which is also getting a PlayStation 3 release as well, ranked as the fifth most anticipated Xbox 360 release on the chart. SCEA's Lair topped the PS3 list in the number one spot, above the upcoming port of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden Sigma took the third spot on the chart, followed by Ubisoft's Rainbow Six: Vegas. Once again The Darkness showed up, this time on the PS3 chart as the fifth most anticipated PS3 release for the second quarter. Looking to the Wii, Super Paper Mario trumped all other Q2 releases for Nintendo's platform, with Mario Party 8 exciting players with multiplayer mini-games in the second position. Pokemon Battle Revolution, the first Wii title to boast online multiplayer, took the third spot on the chart, followed by Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: Rival Swords and Activision's movie adaptation Spider-Man 3. A pair of Pokemon title ranked on top of the DS chart, with Pokemon Diamond taking top honors above Pokemon Pearl. The recently announced Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales ranked third on the portable chart, followed by Naruto: Ninja Council 3 and yet another appearance by Spider-Man 3. Spider-Man 3 also showed up as the top title for the PlayStation 2, while Square Enix's recently announced Dawn of Mana ranked second. Atlus USA's upcoming RPG Odin Sphere and Agetec's Raw Danger claimed the third and fourth positions on the chart, while Namco Bandai's Eureka Seven Vol. 2: The New Vision took fifth. On the PSP, it's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 that proved to be the most wanted game, with Bethesda's portable RPG The Elder Scrolls Travels: Oblivion and Rainbow Six: Vegas taking the second and third spots on the list. Spider-Man 3 once again swings onto the chart in the fourth position, with the PSP list's top five rounded out by Prince of Persia: Rival Swords. Lastly, the PC list was headed up by Windows Vista figurehead Halo 2, followed by Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. A pair of lesser known titles round out the list with Turtle Rock's Left 4 Dead in the fourth position, followed by Atari's ArmA: Combat Operations.