Okay, so I wrote something about how the AR was higher, and that there had become something called "must haves" this gen. Well, I realized it was wrong. Still, I decided to post it here, as otherwise it would be 8 wasted minutes (:P). Hopefully it is somewhat interesting...

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A word that is generally being tossed around a lot (on VGChartz), is a "must have" title.

Now, what is a must have title? Well, it's a title that everyone with the console/handheld "must" have.

Of course, no such thing does really exist, but this gen, some titles are getting awfully close. 

Right, games with the best AR on consoles.

3rd generation:  

NES - 60M sold

SMB - 40M sold, but too heavily bundled to count

Duck Hunt - 28M, but too heavily bundled to count

SMB 3 - 18M - 30% AR. Slightly bundled.

SMB 2 - 7.5M - 12.5% AR. Not a "must have".

Lacking sales data on Master System.

So during the 3rd gen, there was really only one "must have" title - Super Mario Bros. 3 with 30% attach rate.

4th Generation 

SNES - 49M sold 

Super Mario World - 20M. 40% AR, but was really too bundled to count.

Super Mario All stars - 11M - 22% AR.

DKC - 9.3M - 19% AR.

Genesis - 29M sold  

Sonic 2 - 6.03M - 20.6% AR

So really, there were no "must have" titles in the 4th gen. Well, possibly Super Mario World.

5th Gen 

Playstation 1 - 102.49M

Gran Turismo - 11M - 11% AR.

N64 - 33M

SM64 - 12M - 36% AR, but too bundled to really count.

MK64 - 9.9M - 30% AR

Golden Eye - 8.1M - 24.5% AR

During the 5th gen, there was possibly 1 "must have". Remember, the qualification for being a "must have" is higher in AR the less the console sold. Still, MK64 counts.

6th Gen 

Ps2 - 125M (and counting) 

GTA:SA 17.5M - 14%

Xbox - 24M

Halo 2 - 8.5M - 35.5%

Halo - 6.4M - 26.6%

Gamecube - 21M

Melee - 7.1M - 34%

Double Dash - 7M - 33%

So during the 6th gen, there were 3 semi "must have"s. They're just semi as the consoles sold as little as they did.

Now, 7th gen.

Wii - 44M 

Wii Play - 19.2M - 43%

Wii Fit - 13.4M  - 30.5%

MKWii - 13M - 29.5%

X360  - 26.5M

Halo 3 - 8.8M  - 33%

CoD 4 - 6.9M -  26%

Ps3 - 18.8M

GTA IV - 5.2M - 27.6%

Okay, so that turned out proving nothing. Great...

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 Enjoy! (or something...)

Super Mario 64 was bundled? Nintendo said it themselves that Wii Sports was their first bundled console game since Super Mario World. Well, Reggie Fils-Aime said it on September 14th, 2006.

I just looked at "penetration levels" for games for the current consoles ("attach rate" usually refers to number of games bought per console) and only found that the more a system sells, the less of a chance that there are games universally owned.

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=54763&page=1

Interestingly, Wii Sports has a very high penetration level in Japan (45%) where it is sold separately and NOT bundled.

Mike from Morgantown

I think Wii sports resort will have an attach rate over 40% and give Wii Play a run for its money