Mass Effect 3 leads E3 media consumption

Video game research firm EEDAR has called Mass Effect 3 the "most promising retail title" of E3. But, how did BioWare's space epic beat out other games on the list, like Battlefield 3, Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3?

Jesse Divnich, Vice President of Capital Research at EEDAR explained the metric they used to rank games at E3 as "objectively quantifiable." Apparently, that means using a combined score of page views on IGN and the amount of media views on GameTrailers. "The list was created after analyzing over 78 million recorded Page Views (IGN) and over 45 million Media Views (GT) for the top 500 titles showcased at E3 2011," EEDAR elaborates. It's unclear if the scale accounts for the fact that some games simply have more articles and videos associated with them, or if pre-E3 "Judge's Week" coverage factors into a game's overall score.

Regardless, Mass Effect 3 performed incredibly well on every scale, being the most-read game on IGN and having the third-most media views on GameTrailers. However, the most popular trailer was still for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which ranks 4th overall on EEDAR's list:

    1. Mass Effect 3

    2. Battlefield 3

    3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

    4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

    5. Assassin's Creed Revelations

    6. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

    7. Batman: Arkham City

    8. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

    9. Halo 4

    10. Infamous 2

Infamous 2 and Duke Nukem Forever scored relatively high on the charts, at 10th and 11th place respectively. Likely, people were reading previews and reviews for these high-profile games, which released during and near E3.

Interestingly, no games for newly-announced platforms (Wii U, Vita) made the top 20. Super Mario 3DS is the only handheld game to reach the top 20, at the 17th position. The EEDAR report also notes that Xbox 360 had "the highest awareness and purchase intent for its first and third party titles."