After a few days of number crunching, says Hryb, Microsoft was able to determine through unique user data which games had been played online the most. “Last year was a great year to be an Xbox 360 gamer as is evident by the quality of titles that Xbox LIVE members were playing,” he adds.
What’s slightly confusing is that Gears Of War 2 is one place above its predecessor, despite being released eleven months into a full year of Gears 1 deathmatches. It is perhaps for this very reason that Call of Duty: World at War sits in sixth while its beloved predecessor holds second behind Bungie’s epic.
The first game down the list that doesn’t feature shooting mechanics, Guitar Hero III, sits in seventh, three places ahead of MTV’s Rock Band.
The data also implies that Battlefield: Bad Company was the most popular demo of 2008, closely followed by Ubisoft’s the Force Unleashed.
For a game that sold so disappointingly, EA should find encouragement that the Mirror’s Edge franchise certainly holds an allure for its target audience; the game’s demo sits in twelfth, six places ahead of the once-highly-anticipated World at War Multiplayer Beta.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has also compiled a list of the best-selling Live Arcade titles of 2008, fortunately using the less ambiguous data of purchase figures. Surprisingly, The Behemoth’s buggy co-operative scrolling fighter Castle Crashers tops the list, a single place ahead of the sequel to Live Arcade’s breakthrough title Geometry Wars.
Jonathan Blow’s much-adored indie financial risk Braid fortunately finds the comfort of being the third most-popular Live Arcade title, while Capcom’s Street Fighter HD (which remains a 360 exclusive in Europe) jumps to sixth.
Both lists can be found on the following page.