Zachack said:
I'd argue that Portal would count since the main character is GLADOS. But what I'd really argue (and this is really more gut feeling more than anything) is that by your criteria there wouldn't be an overwhelming amount of male-lead games above 1M since 1995, either. You've basically cut out all western RPGs and many eastern RPGs.
Okay, well.
US Million sellers, by category (currently includes GCN, N64, XBX, GBA, DC, PS1, PS2, PS3, Wii, DS, X360);
Male lead, small ensemble with playable male, large ensemble significantly tilted male: Mario Sunshine, Zelda TWW, Luigi's Mansion, Sonic Adventure GCN, Paper Mario 2, Sonic Mega Collection, Halo, Halo 2, Fable, Splinter Cell, GTA SA, SW Battlefront, SW Battlefront 2, Ghost Recon, Sonic Adventure, Super Mario 64, Zelda OOT, Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64, Star Fox 64, Star Wars SOTE, Majora's Mask, SW Rogue Squadron, Turok 2, Yoshi's Story, Crash Bandicoot 2, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Driver, FF7, MGS, Driver 2, FF8, FF9, Syphon Filter, Spyro Year of the Dragon, Rayman, FF9, Spec Ops, Spyro: Season of Ice, Kingdom Hearts CoM, Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, Sonic Advance, Yoshi's Island Advance, Zelda LTTP Advance, Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World Advance, Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, SW Battlefront II PSP, God of War Chains of Olympus, CoD MW2, CoD MW, GTA4, CoD WaW, MGS4, Assassin's Creed, AC2, Uncharted 2, Resistance, Halo 3, Gears, Gears 2, Halo 3 ODST, AC2, CoD2, RE5, R6: Vegas, GRAW, R6: Vegas 2, CoD3, Dead Rising, Saints Row, NSMB Wii, SMG, Link's Crossbow Training, Zelda: TP, BioShock, Croc, Syphon Filter 2, Pac-Man World, Super Paper Mario (feel free to recategorize this one), RE4, SW: TFU (might not have hit a million), NSMB, SM64DS, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Kirby Superstar Ultra, Scribblenauts, GTAVC, GTA3, Kingdom Hearts, KH2, God of War, God of War 2, FFX, FFXII, SOCOM II, Ratchet and Clank 1, Ratchet and Clank 2, Ratchet and Clank 3, Ratchet and Clank 4, Jak and Daxter 1, Jak and Daxter 2, Jak and Daxter 3, Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex, Max Payne, Max Payne 2, Medal of Honor: Rising Son, True Crime: Streets of LA, SOCOM, Call of Duty Finest Hour, MGS2, MGS3, SOCOM 3, Hitman 2, Devil May Cry, Pac-Man World 2, Black, The Getaway, Bully, Splinter Cell, Shadow of the Colossus (might not quite be there, was VERY close),
Female lead, small ensemble with playable female, large ensemble significantly tilted female: Metroid Prime, Perfect Dark, Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider 2, Resident Evil 2, Tomb Raider 3, Resident Evil 1, Resident Evil 3, Mario Bros 2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Cooking Mama, Yoshi's Island 2, Cooking Mama 2, FFX-2, RE Code Veronica X (might have broken a million, not sure), FF13
Create-a-character: Animal Crossing, SW KOTOR, LittleBigPlanet, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fable 2, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Saints Row 2, Deca Sports?, Animal Crossing City Folk, EA Sports Active, Animal Crossing Wild World, MySims (DS is past a million, Wii might be), The Sims PS2,
True ensemble (includes fighting games regardless of gender balance): Smash Bros, Mario Kart GCN, Mario Kart 64, Smash Bros Melee, Diddy Kong Racing, Mario Party 2, Mario Party, Tekken 3, Crash Team Racing, Tekken 2, Twisted Metal 2 (are there any female characters in this), Spyro 2, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Crash Bash, Mario Kart GBA, Mario Kart Wii, Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Party 8, Mario Kart DS, Mario Party DS, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken 4, Tekken 5, Twisted Metal Black
Games I can't categorize into the above (either because I know about the games and can't decide or don't know enough about the games): Banjo Kazooie, 1080 Snowboarding, Crash Bandicoot 3, Frogger, Cool Boarders 3, Cool Boarders 2, Jet Moto 2, Twisted Metal 2, Twisted Metal 3, Jet Moto, Twisted Metal, Frogger's Adventure GBA, Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Just Dance, Sonic Heroes,
Mii Games: Wii Play, Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus, Wii Sports Resort, Wii Music,
Rules:
- Single SKU, we just simply don't have enough data to combine PS360 SKUs, sorry.
- Excluding racing games, puzzle games, games where the player character is a non-anthropormorphic robot
- Excluding minigame/party games with no player characters
- Excluding all sports and extreme sports games
- Excluding rhythm games
- Excluding licensed games where the license dictates the gender balance of the game (Hannah Montana, Harry Potter, Spider-Man, etc)
- Including licensed games where the license in question is broad enough to allow for flexibility (Star Wars other than games based on specific movies)
- I excluded the Imagine games; several of them have broken a million, although I don't know which ones. I have no idea if you play a female or can create a character or if something so ostentatiously female-targeted would count for this discussion anyway.
- I've made notes on games I am not sure if they've crossed a million or not. Sources: Public NPD numbers, NPD Complete 97-03 XLS file which was posted publicly years ago, pre-leak ban NPD leaks, IGN updates, Pachter updates, the two CAG leaks, several VE3D postings, extrapolation in cases where games were at 950k+ and still trickling when we last got data. This may not be complete for current gen platforms, but it's pretty close.
I hope those rules are more acceptable. I'm not going to count 'em all, but my guess is there's at least a 5:1 tilt towards male leads.