The latest Nielsen consumer report demonstrates that Black Ops 2 and Halo 4 are the two most highly anticipated games of 2012. More than 4,800 gamers, male and female, were asked to list their most anticipated titles. The gamers who participated in the survey were aged 7-54, and owned at least one console from the current generation.
Halo 4 topped the survey with more than 99 percent of the gamers listing it as a game they were anticipating for this year. Call of Duty Black Ops 2 was close behind with 97 percent of gamers listing it as one of their most anticipated titles. Other titles which ranked behind these two were Assassin’s Creed 3, Madden NFL 13, Resident Evil 6, Borderlands 2, Darksiders 2, and Fable: The Journey. Several other sports games also make it to the list including NCAA Football 13, NBA 2K13, FIFA Soccer 13, and NHL 13. Medal of Honor: Warfighter made the list as well, though it was far behind Black Ops 2 and Halo 4.
The dual popularity of the two titles does go to show that just because they are both FPS games does not mean that a lot of gamers aren’t going to go out and purchase both of them. Despite the similarity in the game play style, Halo 4 and Black Ops 2 are very different games set in completely different times and in a way, completely different genres. While both take place in the future, Halo 4 is a far future science fiction game, and COD Black Ops 2 is much closer to our current era in terms of setting and style. So while these games are competitors, they are not competing as directly as many people may have believed, and both will be very successful.