Forum Overview
::
Gamerasutra
::
Top 10 best-selling Xbox 360 games of 2010, according to NPD Group.
[quote name="Jerry Whorebach"]<img src="http://www.gamesetwatch.com/xbox360-top-10-new-releases-2010.png"> Breakdown: 50% tightly-focused competitive multiplayer experiences (Call of Duty, Halo, Madden, Battlefield, NBA 2K), 50% sprawling single-player open-world adventures (Red Dead, Assassin's Creed, Fable, Fallout, Mass Effect). One thing they all have in common: each of these games could be fairly said to offer a functionally unlimited amount of playtime for your initial investment - either due to a surfeit of content, a thriving multiplayer scene, or both. Obvious conclusion: the most important factor in the average Hardcore Gamer's games-purchasing decision is not how fun the game looks to play, or even how interested they may be in the subject matter, but how much "value for money" the game is perceived as representing. For many, apparently, the choice between games is as simple as whether they want a "small fries" or a "large fries" - and at $60 a serving, who can blame them? Also of note: every one of these games scored at least 80% on MetaCritic, with all but one (Fable) scoring 84% or better. Does this mean buyers are paying more attention to reviews these days, or that both buyers and reviewers are now - thanks to the internet, streaming video, downloadable demos, etc. - evaluating games based on essentially the same information, and coming to essentially the same conclusions? That is, are professional reviewers now more influential than ever, or much, much less?[/quote]