Sony games well positioned in 2011

The Playstation could be in for a good year according to new research released today by Ipsos MediaCT and Future Publishing. Three of the top ten, and five of the top 25, most anticipated games titles are first-party Sony offerings. However, the news is not so good for Nintendo with only one Wii title, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, appearing in the top 25, although two Pokemon titles for the DS do feature. The research comes from the newly launched GamePlan UK from Ipsos MediaCT in collaboration with Future Publishing. It is the first syndicated business intelligence tool to offer continuous forward-looking insights on the UK videogame market. GamePlan is already running in the US market, allowing a unique insight into audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. While Gears of War 3 tops the charts in both the US and UK, there are some subtle but important differences between the two markets. Forza Motorsport 4 ranks 3rd in the UK but 24th in the US, which is indicative of the stronger appetite for racing games in the UK (also see Need for Speed: Shift 2). Conversely, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword ranks 4th in the US but barely cracks the top 25 in the UK, which suggests that awareness for this title hasn’t reached critical mass among British gamers. Matthew Hester, Research Director at Ipsos MediaCT said: “While Kinect has the slight edge over Move in the battle of new motion control peripherals, Sony has orchestrated a diverse 2011 line-up of exclusive software that could see it regain control of the UK console wars. We can see a number of differences between the UK and US markets and it will be interesting to see how things change in the coming months as marketing and advertising campaigns ramp up for certain titles.” Up until now, videogame industry professionals in the UK have had limited options when it comes to the continuous tracking of consumer awareness and interest across all major hardware and software releases. The launch of GamePlan UK means that publishers, agencies, retailers, and financial analysts can now dynamically monitor and manage their portfolios, perform comparisons against the competition, identify macro industry trends and forecast the most anticipated titles across all platforms and genres. Since October 2010, Ipsos has conducted more than 10,000 interviews of active gamers across the UK. Similar to GamePlan US, GamePlan UK is a business intelligence tool that measures awareness, purchase intent and the ‘buzz’ surrounding video games. In addition, the survey looks at purchase timing (pre-order, first week, used, etc), forced choice, and perceived game value to help shed light into gamers’ purchase plans. The tool enables users to pinpoint target market demographics and psychographics among gamers who own or intend to purchase specific hardware and software. All the data is integrated in an easy-to-use web portal that features customizable dashboards and data driven competitive sets. Discussing GamePlan and the collaboration with Future Publishing, Hester said: “While this survey tracking data is powerful on its own, by working with Future we can benefit from their expertise in the gaming area that has resulted in a new level of insights and thought leadership for the British videogame industry. “This has been a successfully partnership since we announced a strategic alliance with Future US in 2010. The launch of GamePlan UK represents an exciting new step for both companies.” Alongside the weekly survey data collected by Ipsos, GamePlan UK will feature web analytics data pulled from a selection of Future’s online and offline properties in the UK. About GamePlan Insights Since launching at the MI6 conference in May 2009, GamePlan Insights has emerged as the industry leading research tool for behavioral and attitudinal insights into the videogame market. The tool combines a proprietary weekly online survey of gamers with the comprehensive and continuously updated database from GameFly, AERS Inc. (exclusive provider of eBay transaction data), and now Future’s GamesRadar.com. These data sources are designed to read initial marketplace reactions to new game releases, to evaluate the effects of public relations, to track sales velocity, as well as to analyze rental and resale market data. With the increased adoption of the tool stateside, there has been growing demand for region-specific data in the UK and Europe. To sign up for a trial to GamePlan UK, please email [email protected] with your contact information. About Future Future plc is an international special-interest media group that is listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol FUTR). Founded in 1985 with one magazine, today we have operations in the UK, US and Australia creating over 180 special-interest publications, websites and events for people who are passionate about their interests. We hold strong multi-media market positions in games, technology, film, music, cycling, automotive and crafts. Our biggest-selling magazines include Total Film, T3, Classic Rock, Digital Camera, Guitar World, Official Xbox Magazine, Official Playstation Magazine, Nintendo Power, Maximum PC and MacLife. Our websites include gamesradar.com, bikeradar.com, techradar.com, musicradar.com, dailyradar.com and photoradar.com. Future produces nearly 4 million magazines each month; we attract more than 27 million unique visitors to our websites; and we host 27 annual live events that attract hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts. In addition, Future exports, syndicates or licenses its publications to 90 countries internationally, making us the UK’s number one exporter and licensor of monthly magazines. About Ipsos MediaCT Ipsos MediaCT plays a prominent role within media and communications research, holding key industry audience measurement contracts and conducting bespoke research to assist our clients in informing their strategic decisions. We work across all media, technology and entertainment sectors and our teams of experts have extensive experience, partnering with our clients to gain a better understanding of this challenging industry. We have particular expertise in sampling minority audiences that are usually difficult to reach, such as senior business people, high income consumers, ethnic minorities, other groups that are socially excluded, slow technology adopters and homes that receive different radio and TV platforms. Using a wide variety of research techniques, we help individual media owners, content owner studios, technology companies, agencies and advertisers address issues such as editorial and programming, advertising, audience profiling and music tastes, market positioning, piracy, high definition and theatrical markets, new product and programme development and license applications. Brief introductions to the work we do are included here but we pride ourselves on designing the most appropriate solutions to meet all aspects of your research needs. Please do contact us if you would like to find out more, or if you have a research proposition you would like to explore. We are involved in running all the major media audience measurement surveys, including the National Readership Survey (NRS), the Outdoor Measurement Survey (Postar), the Establishment Survey for the TV Measurement Panel (BARB) and Europe's largest and most complex survey – the Radio Audience Measurement Survey (RAJAR). In addition, media owners, ad agencies and advertisers use our regular multi-country syndicated surveys of business leaders and opinion formers for media planning.  The Business Elite Surveys have been running since the 1970s and survey the top business executives globally.