The record breaking success of the Halo 3, million-seller Gears of War, the new IP hit Bioshock, highly anticipated games Unreal Tournament / Mass Effect and the modest sales of Metroid Prime 3, these games tends to follow the most popular and proven game formula so far this console gen.
Main characters: The main characters are either enchanced super humans or super soldiers with testosterone-blowing super weapons.
Plot: The storyline is like this... A pending invasion to the main character's 'race' by some kind of aliens/monsters. The goal of the super humans is to prevent the invasion.
Game Execution: First Person Shooter (online multiplayer support is a +++)
So far Xbox 360 owns this game genre (most likely the runaway winner), on record they already have 3 hits and more to come.
Nintendo's 7 weeks old MP3 sales is modest compared to Microsofts. So far, MP3 has failed to grab a decent amount of FPS fanatics. Buyers so far are just Metroid fans. The game has failed the viral marketing effect that the soon-to-be-million seller Resident Evil 4 experience on this platform. And for the near future, looks like there is no promising game of this kind of game on the Wii (given all the limitations).
For Sony's case, their next shot is Unreal Tournament (Per Wikipedia, Midway is giving the PS3 a timed exclusive). The first was Resistance: Fall of Man, though it sold a million plus, it was clobbered by Gears of War in sales, critic's reviews, etc. The real challenge for Sony is to set its console apart and offer something unique to Xbox 360's lineup and counter the advantage it got for being released a 1 1/2 year earlier and having the Halo franchise.
There is no research on the size of the audience for this game genre. Using Halo 2's 8.3 million copies sold should be a good basis to estimate the market. With such size, this market should be part of the core strategy of each console if each aims for total domination. (calling Nintendo)
Game Genre: FPS + Super Humans + Alien Invastion
Winner: Xbox 360
Runner Up: PS3
Trailing Behind: Nintendo Wii
Wii Code: 4819-7684-2396-4558
