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Who's getting all the magazine attention (EA - 15% of all pages) and who's getting ignored (sorry Sony).
Securing media coverage as the critical holiday season approaches is never easy. The videogame magazines offer limited space, so every page counts. In order to explore how this precious is divvied up, we've polled the five biggest mainstream console magazines currently on newsstands to find out who's getting the love from the industry press and who's getting left out.
Every kind of coverage counted in the poll: reviews, previews, features, and any other story focused on a game. The console magazines currently on newsstands that we polled this month include:
* GamePro - October Issue
* EGM - October Issue
* PSM - October Issue
* Official Xbox Magazine -October Issue
* Official PlayStation Magazine - September Issue
Section 1: Pages By Publisher
Breaking down coverage in this manner, we see that two obvious elements dictate placement on the list - sheer number of games and key AAA games in the pipeline.
EA nailed both elements and secured a staggering 15% of all game related pages for the month. Here is how the list breaks down.
Notable omission:
Nintendo - 4 pages - 1.86% page share - note: there are no GameCube-specific magazines on this list, which would partially explain Nintendo's lack of coverage.
Section 2: Pages By Game
Games like Halo2 and GTA: San Andreas established their rankings with preview and feature coverage across the spectrum of magazines. Other games snagged coverage through reviews and strategy guides. Most intriguing, however, is Activision's Spiderman 2, which piled up pages of periphery coverage despite the fact it was released in the summer. Here's the entire list:
Section 3: Cover Hits
Earning a cover mention is often considered even more important than internal coverage. We check each magazine's cover, and here's who came out on top:
Cover Mentions By Publisher:
Thanks to Burnout 3, Need For Speed: Underground 3, Goldeneye 2 and more, EA dominated the covers this month. Rockstar and Microsoft followed behind thanks to GTA San Andreas and Halo 2 respectively.
Cover Images By Publisher:
Often better than a cover mention is a cover graphic, be it screen shot or character art. EA landed four cover images on essentially four covers this month (OPM did not have any game specific cover images this month.) Microsoft landed two Halo 2 images and several other publishers all tied with one.
Cover Mentions By Game:
No real surprises here except for the heavy influence on racing games. Considering how two of the magazine included virtually identical street racing features, this should not be much of a surprise.
Who's getting all the magazine attention (EA - 15% of all pages) and who's getting ignored (sorry Sony).
Securing media coverage as the critical holiday season approaches is never easy. The videogame magazines offer limited space, so every page counts. In order to explore how this precious is divvied up, we've polled the five biggest mainstream console magazines currently on newsstands to find out who's getting the love from the industry press and who's getting left out.
Every kind of coverage counted in the poll: reviews, previews, features, and any other story focused on a game. The console magazines currently on newsstands that we polled this month include:
* GamePro - October Issue
* EGM - October Issue
* PSM - October Issue
* Official Xbox Magazine -October Issue
* Official PlayStation Magazine - September Issue
Section 1: Pages By Publisher
Breaking down coverage in this manner, we see that two obvious elements dictate placement on the list - sheer number of games and key AAA games in the pipeline.
EA nailed both elements and secured a staggering 15% of all game related pages for the month. Here is how the list breaks down.
Code:
Pages By Publisher
Rank Pages Page Share Publisher Comment
1 31.16 14.48% EA Almost twice the coverage of the next publisher. Lots of games... lots of big names.
2 16.42 7.63% Microsoft Halo 2 was the anchor, Sudeki and Fable rounded out the coverage
3 15.33 7.13% Activision THUG 2 and XMen Legends in the pipe, and lots of post launch Spiderman 2 coverage too!
4 14.15 6.58% Konami Plenty of games scheduled for fall and Metal Gear coverage has become an industry staple.
5 13.33 6.20% Atari Coverage spread over a wide array of titles.
6 12.90 6.00% Sega Led by ESPN football, Sega shows up strong with a solid number of upcoming titles.
7 10.50 4.88% Vivendi Two thirds of the coverage should be credited to Scarface cover feature in EGM.
8 10.08 4.69% LucasArts Powered mainly by Star Wars: Battleground reviews and strategy.
9 9.59 4.46% Capcom Most coverage due to reviews, but some holiday preview coverage as well.
10 8.24 3.83% Rockstar Chalk this up to GTA San Andreas, if more game info was available, Rockstar would climb the list.
11 8.00 3.72% Tecmo DOA Ultimate is pulling in the pages.
12 7.58 3.52% Midway Mortal Kombat: Deception provides the biggest chunk of coverage for midway.
13 7.50 3.49% Sony Disappointing, considering that two PS2 exclusive magazines are on this list.
14 7.25 3.37% Ubisoft Prince of Persia 2 showed up big, and Splinter Cell coverage never gets old.
15 7.07 3.29% Namco Coverage established without much help from
Namco's bigger name franchises.Notable omission:
Nintendo - 4 pages - 1.86% page share - note: there are no GameCube-specific magazines on this list, which would partially explain Nintendo's lack of coverage.
Section 2: Pages By Game
Games like Halo2 and GTA: San Andreas established their rankings with preview and feature coverage across the spectrum of magazines. Other games snagged coverage through reviews and strategy guides. Most intriguing, however, is Activision's Spiderman 2, which piled up pages of periphery coverage despite the fact it was released in the summer. Here's the entire list:
Code:
Pages by Game
Rank Pages Game Publisher Comment
1 9.25 Halo 2 Microsoft Seemingly the most anticipated game of the year
2 7.50 Star Wars: Battleground LucasArts Feature reviews and strategies make up the coverage
3 7.00 Scarface Vivendi All pages from a single cover feature in EGM
4 6.41 GTA San Andreas Rockstar Every bit of new info earns huge attention
5 5.58 Spiderman 2 Activision Spiderman amazingly keeps showing up long after it has already shipped.
6 5.33 Silent Hill 4 Konami Mostly feature reviews
7 4.75 Burnout 3 EA A mix of reviews and feature highlights
8 4.50 T.H.U.G. 2 Activision The videogame magazines adore Tony Hawk
9 4.33 ESPN Football 2K5 Sega Big reviews and tons of strategy
10 4.08 Mortal Kombat: Deception Midway Mortal Kombat still draws press
11 4.00 DOA Ultimate Tecmo Girls in bikinis always seem to get coverage
12 3.75 Prince of Persia 2 Ubisoft Favorable reviews for the original earns coverage for the sequel
13 3.50 Sudeki Microsoft Mostly feature reviews
14 3.33 Madden 2005 EA Strategies for summer's perennial favorite
15 3.25 XMen Legends Activision Big preview hype for fanboy dream RPGSection 3: Cover Hits
Earning a cover mention is often considered even more important than internal coverage. We check each magazine's cover, and here's who came out on top:
Cover Mentions By Publisher:
Thanks to Burnout 3, Need For Speed: Underground 3, Goldeneye 2 and more, EA dominated the covers this month. Rockstar and Microsoft followed behind thanks to GTA San Andreas and Halo 2 respectively.
Code:
Publisher Cover Mentions
EA 14
Rockstar 6
Microsoft 6
Sony 5
Konami 5
Nintendo 4
Ubisoft 3
Activision 3Cover Images By Publisher:
Often better than a cover mention is a cover graphic, be it screen shot or character art. EA landed four cover images on essentially four covers this month (OPM did not have any game specific cover images this month.) Microsoft landed two Halo 2 images and several other publishers all tied with one.
Code:
Publisher Cover Images
EA 4
Microsoft 2
Many others Tied at 1Cover Mentions By Game:
No real surprises here except for the heavy influence on racing games. Considering how two of the magazine included virtually identical street racing features, this should not be much of a surprise.
Code:
Game Cover Mentions
Burnout 3 3
GTA San Andreas 3
Halo 2 3
Midnight Club 3 3
Need For Speed 3: Underground 3
Silent Hill 4 3
DOA Ultimate 2
Goldeneye 2 2
Gran Turismo 4 2
Mortal Kombat: Deception 2
Pikmin 2 2
Prince of Persia 2 2
SRS 2
Sudeki 2