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Gamasutra's listing of worldwide video game releases to debut this week, "Release This!", now has exclusive information on U.S. purchase intent data, with WoW: The Burning Crusade and WarioWare: Smooth Moves leading the week's most anticipat

Danny Cowan, Blogger

January 15, 2007

4 Min Read

Gamasutra's regular round-up of worldwide video game releases, "Release This!", takes a look at every game title we know to be shipping to stores this week, in an exclusively compiled list. MMORPG fans in the United States and Europe are doubtlessly looking forward to this week in new releases, as January 15th marks the release of the anticipated World of Warcraft expansion pack The Burning Crusade. Gamers in the United States will also soon enjoy WarioWare: Smooth Moves and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All, while Japan prepares itself for awaited titles like .hack//G.U. Vol. 3: Aruku Youna Hayasa de and Gears of War. This week also introduces the listing of Mindshare data for upcoming U.S. releases, courtesy of IGN's GamerMetrics data, which tracks the relative share of awareness and purchase intent generated by a specific title on IGN.com. For the "IGN GamerMetrics Most Anticipated New Releases," Mindshare is relative to all titles scheduled to launch during the specified week, and is based on 90 days of IGN.com data leading up to the week of launch. The following list covers all of the game software we know to be available -- across all platforms and regions -- for the week ending January 20, 2007. Games Released in the United States:

Nintendo Wii:
- WarioWare: Smooth Moves (#1 on GamerMetrics Most Anticipated New Releases, 40.98% Mindshare)

Xbox 360:
- NCAA March Madness 07 (#4 on GamerMetrics, 8.56%)

Nintendo DS:
- Fossil League: Dino Tournament Championship
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All (#3 on GamerMetrics, 11.87%)
- Underground Pool

PlayStation 2:
- NCAA March Madness 07 (#5 on GamerMetrics, 3.60%)

PC:
- Close Quarters Conflict
- Great Invasions
- Hexic Deluxe
- Pat Sajak's Lucky Letters Deluxe
- The Shield
- World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (#2 on GamerMetrics, 30.94%)

Games Released in Europe:

PC:
- World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

WarioWare: Smooth Moves leads as this week's most anticipated title across all platforms in the United States, according to GamerMetrics's Mindshare data collected over the last three months. Smooth Moves, a Nintendo-published collection of fast-paced minigames, has been cited by many gamers as one of their most awaited Wii titles since the console's launch in November. Trailing close behind with 30.94% of this week's Mindshare is the MMORPG expansion pack World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. (The Burning Crusade also has the distinction of being the only game that will be released in Europe this week.) New releases will be similarly sparse for the UK throughout the rest of January, though February already looks to offer a much greater selection of upcoming titles. Games Released in Japan:

Nintendo Wii:
- Excite Truck

Xbox 360:
- Gears of War

PlayStation 2:
- .hack//G.U. Vol. 3: Aruku Youna Hayasa de
- Bionicle Heroes
- Dragon Shadow Spell
- Meitantei Evangelion
- Shining Force EXA

Nintendo DS:
- Kaitou Wario the Seven
- Ochaken no Heya DS 2
- Sekaiju no Meikyuu

PlayStation Portable:
- FIFA 07
- M.A.C.H. Modified Air Combat Heroes
- The Sims 2: Pet Wan Nyan Life
- Talkman Shiki: Shabe Lingual Eikaiwa
- Wizardry Empire III: Haoh no Keifu

Along with Smooth Moves in the U.S., Wario will also make an appearance in Japan this week with Kaitou Wario the Seven, the first new side-scrolling platformer the Wario series has seen since the 2001 release of Wario Land 4 for the Game Boy Advance. Other anticipated releases include a localized version of the best-selling Xbox 360 FPS Gears of War, along with .hack//G.U. Vol. 3: Aruku Youna Hayasa de, which will serve as the concluding chapter in the popular .hack//G.U. RPG trilogy. [About IGN GamerMetrics: IGN GamerMetrics is a tool designed to report the real-time behavior and interests of visitors to IGN Entertainment's network of gaming enthusiast web sites, showing the levels of consumer awareness, engagement, and purchase intent in every video game title released in the U.S. market.]

About the Author(s)

Danny Cowan

Blogger

Danny Cowan is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist for Gamasutra and its subsites. Previously, he has written reviews and feature articles for gaming publications including 1UP.com, GamePro, and Hardcore Gamer Magazine.

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