QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH INTO FIRST PERSON SHOOTERS AND THERE AUDIENCE.

By Dominic O’Brien

Title Release Year Copies sold

Halo 2 2004 8 million[17]

Halo: Combat Evolved

2001 5 million[18]

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

2002 3 million[19][20][21]

Fable 2004 3 million[22]

Project Gotham Racing

2001 2.50 million[23]

Grand Theft Auto Double Pack

2003 1.70 million[21][24][25]

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

2003 1.58 million[24][25]

Counter-Strike 2004 1.50 million[26][27]

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

2005 1.46 million[24][28]

Need for Speed: Underground 2

2005 1.44 million[24][28]

Madden NFL 2005 2004 1.42 million[24]

Madden NFL 06 2005 1.41 million[24]

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One

2005 1.39 million[24]

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

2002 1.36 million[24]

ESPN NFL 2K5 2004 1.38 million[24]

Dead or Alive 3 2001 1.28 million[21][24]

Star Wars: Battlefront 2004 1.22 million[24][25]

Star Wars: Battlefront II

2005 1.13 million[24][25]

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon

2001 1.13 million[21][24]

Need for Speed: Underground

2004 1.10 million[24][25]

Original XboxAccording to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

This graph shows the top grossing games for Xbox, by looking at this graph we can see First Person Shooters where quite popular there are 5 within the top 20, 2 of which are at the top grossing games.

Xbox 360 games which have sold or shipped three million copies

According to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

Title Total copies sold Release date Genre

Kinect Adventures

24 million

•NA November 4, 2010•EU November 10, 2010•AUS November 18, 2010

Sports game

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

14.23 million

•WW November 8, 2011•JP November 17, 2011 (Sub)•JP December 22, 2011 (Dub)

First-person shooter

Call of Duty: Black Ops

13.39 million

•WW November 9, 2010[30]

•JP November 18, 2010 (Sub)•JP December 16, 2010 (Dub)

First-person shooter

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

12.81 million

NA 20091110November 10, 2009PAL 20091110November 10, 2009

First-person shooter

Halo 3 11.54 million

•NA September 25, 2007•AUS September 25, 2007•EU September 26, 2007

First-person shooter

Grand Theft Auto IV

9.69 million•WW April 29, 2008•JP April 30, 2008

Action-adventure game

Halo: Reach 9.06 million

•WW September 14, 2010•JP September 15, 2010

First-person shooter

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

8.66 million

•NA November 5, 2007•AUS November 7, 2007•EU November 9, 2007

First-person shooter

This graph shows the increased popularity of First Person Shooter games over the years since the original Xbox as there are now 6 First Person Shooting in the top grossing list and are all within the top 8.

Top grossing PC Games

Game SalesSales breakdown (region)

SeriesRelease date

The Sims 2 20 million The SimsSeptember 14, 2004

The Sims 16 million The SimsFebruary 4, 2000

Half-Life 2 12 million Half-LifeNovember 16, 2004

StarCraft 11 million StarCraftMarch 31, 1998

Diablo III 10 million DiabloMay 15, 2012

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

10 millionThe Elder Scrolls

November 11, 2011

The Sims 3 10 million The Sims02 June 2009

Minecraft9.394 million

N/ANovember 18, 2011

Half-Life 9.3 million Half-LifeNovember 19, 1998

According to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_PC_video_games

Looking at this graph we can see that First Person Shooters are also somewhat popular on the PC.

Game Title SalesCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

12.04 million

Call of Duty: Black Ops 11.39 millionCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

9.95 million

Gran Turismo 5 9.19 millionGrand Theft Auto IV 9.18 millionCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

6.13 million

FIFA 12 5.98 millionMetal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

5.64 million

Top Grossing Play Station 3 GamesAccording to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

This graph also shows the popularity of First Person Shooters on the Play Station 3, as 4 out of the 8 top sellers are all First Person Shooter games.

If we look at all these graphs it suggests that FPS games are more popular on console then on PC.

Looking at these graphs it is safe to say that First Person Shooter Games are one of the highest grossing genre’s and have been for many years, from Halo 2 on the Original Xbox that sold 8 million copies, to Call of Duty: Black Ops that was released 6 years later on the Xbox 360 and sold 13.19 million copies. The graphs also show the demand for FPS games over a wide range of platforms, by looking at the top grossing games for Play Station 3, you can see all 3 of the top grossing games are First Person Shooters, this shows the steady rise of First Person Shooters as well as the demand for more such as new releases like Far Cry 3 which has sold 1.66 million units so far and has only been on sale for a few months.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire Results

Plays games?

Never Plays FPS

Sometimes Plays FPS

Always Plays FPS

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

GirlsBoys

10 to 12 13 to 15 16 to 18 19+0

5

10

15

20

25

FemaleMale

Audience Profiling.Top video game genres played offline in the last 30 days**:

  % Composition comScore Index

Shooter 28.5% 376

Adventure 28.5% 312

Role Playing 17.9% 190

Strategy 17.3% 257

Fighting 15.9% 243

Top video game genres played online in the last 30 days**:

  % Composition comScore Index

MMO 44.3% 726

Role Playing 34.9% 615

Shooter 34.6% 556

Fighting 8.2% 195

Looking at these two graphs from the Curse audience profile we can see that a vast majority of people play shooter games online and off be that First Person Shooters or not.

If we compare the ‘Curse’ graphs to the graphs taken from the questionnaire results we can see that Males between 16-24 are the primary audience for games.

Play

s gam

es?

Never

Plays

FPS

Som

etim

es P

lays

FPS

Alway

s Plays

FPS

0102030

GirlsBoys

10 to 12

13 to 15

16 to 18

19+0

5

10

15

20

25

FemaleMale

Role

Play

ing G

ames

MMO

3rd P

erso

n Shoo

ters

Puzz

le

Arcad

e0

1.5 12

1 1 1

Games currently playing (girls)

Games cur-rently playing (girls)

Role

Play

ing

Games

MMO

3rd

Pers

on S

hoot

ers

Puzz

le

Arcad

e

Racing

horror

0

10

20

30

1626

5697716

91444

Games currently playing (Male)

Games cur-rently playing (Male)

Comparing these two graphs suggest that males play a wider range of games to that of girls, we can also see that the most widely played game is the First Person Shooter.

To conclude, it would appear that First Person Shooter games are and have been one of the most played/top grossing game genre’s out there.My game shall be aimed at 16-24 year old males as this appears to be the group that play these types of games most frequently.