A new report from market research firm Overtone found that
Halo: Reach was tops in online chatter for upcoming games, and was mentioned three times more often in video gaming online communities than
Call of Duty: Black Ops during July.
The chatter for
Halo: Reach is only likely to rise, leading up to the game's September release. Microsoft recently said that the marketing campaign for the sci-fi shooter will be the
biggest yet for Microsoft Game Studios.
Call of Duty: Black Ops is Activision's big console game for this holiday, and it launches about a month-and-a-half after
Halo: Reach on November 9.
Overtone's GameVoice report also found that Sony's PlayStation 3 generated the highest volume of comments in popular online video game communities. The report said the PS3 had 73,000 comments from these online social circles, Xbox 360 had 62,000 and the Wii had 62,000 comments, followed by PSP and DS. Comments relating to the upcoming 3DS stood at 6,462 during July.
But just because a product might have a higher amount of online chat, that doesn't mean that it's all positive. Nintendo's DS and 3DS ranked highest in positive sentiment, the report said, and Xbox 360 and PS3 ranked lowest.
"In the July report we see noticeably lower sentiment across several categories, likely a result of fading enthusiasm about June’s big E3 Conference announcements. However, several games and products continue to generate significant comment volume and those will be the ones to watch over the next several months," said Michelle Mathis, GameVoice product manager.
Electronic Arts led publishers in July chatter with 26,000 comments, mainly relating to the
Dragon Age and
Medal of Honor franchises, which both have new entries currently in development.
While
Halo: Reach led chatter for upcoming games, Activision's 2009 release
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was the most talked-about released game for July with over 32,000 comments. Competing Electronic Arts shooter
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 garnered the second-largest volume of comments at about half of
Modern Warfare 2's. Take-Two's
Red Dead Redemption, which led chatter when released in May, dropped to fifth place with just over 10,000 comments.
Overtone said that the GameVoice report gathers data using a social media analytics application called OpenMic, which "reads" comments to determine the conversation volume.
