作者：Thomas Bidaux

为了完成回顾去年的一系列博文，今天我将继续和你们说说2016年以及这一年的电子游戏。

特别值得一提的是，在2016年《Pokemon Go》的确掀起了巨大的轰动。这是远超我们想象的疯狂。因为太疯狂了，所以我在此所列出的一些数值将仅限于电子游戏媒体。我们拥有General Interest和Tech media，但它们所收集到的数据也不是那么完整。

Pokemon Go(from znjchina)

游戏

让我们先说说《Pokemon Go》。在游戏刚发行时我写过它，虽然自7月以来情况相对缓解了些，但这款游戏每一天还是能收到无数宣传报道，甚至是在没有出现可以讨论的更新内容时。

但话虽如此，这款游戏却不是游戏媒体中最受欢迎的no.1，《守望先锋》反而占领了那一位置。

在2015年9月刚公开时，《Pokemon Go》所获得的媒体报道并不多，直到2016年7月初刚发行时才逐渐多了起来。我们所收集到的只是6个月的报道数量，相比之下《守望先锋》在5月发行前便已经获得了许多报道了。

如果我们将这些数值与去年以来的数值进行比较（即考虑更广泛媒体类型），我们便会发现《Pokemon Go》作为一款任天堂游戏和手机游戏的确非常突出。

《守望先锋》亦是如此，在2015年，它比其它任何游戏拥有超过50%的媒体报道。游戏的在线属性以及不断的更新，再加上暴雪强大的品牌效应都成功推动着这款游戏的发展，让它成为2016年媒体影响力最大的游戏。

《守望先锋》也是这一榜单中仅有的两款全新IP中的一款，另一款游戏是《无人深空》。许多产业评论家都表示《无人深空》的大肆宣传起了非常大的作用，这点我们不得不承认，因为作为来自一家小型独立工作室的游戏，它却能出现在媒体影响力榜单的前15名内。甚至连索尼的PR手段都不能做到这点，也有许多非常大型的游戏不能进入这一榜单中。所以游戏宣传拥有非常强大的力量。

对于不同系列的粉丝而言，看到《战地1》拥有比今年的《使命召唤》多出40%的媒体报告是非常有趣的消息。随着一年一年的发展，《使命召唤》的媒体报道率下降了12%。

每月数据

很长一段时间我们都希望能够获得这些数据。ICO也是一个PR代理，很多关于工作室与发行商的讨论是围绕着执行特殊宣传的最佳时机。这便是了解游戏何时会被淹没的最佳方法。

你们会发现我将《Pokemon Go》从数据中删除了。因为这款游戏发行时太过强势所以造成数据一边倒（游戏邦注：2016年7月游戏媒体中有超过7%的文章是关于《Pokemon Go》）。虽然删除这款游戏并非最佳方法，但却能让整体画面和谐一些。

还有其它理解这些数据的方法，而以下则是我的方法：

当有关AAA级游戏的媒体文章较少时你可能会想去宣传游戏。这意味着媒体报道是多样化的并且他们也更有可能去报道你的游戏。从这一角度来看，11月通常是最难宣传的一月。

当存在许多媒体报道时你也拥有更多机会被报道，但是很多文章也意味着你的游戏更难被注意到。所以像在E3期间进行游戏宣传既是福也可能是祸。

虽然在圣诞期间媒体报道会有所下滑，但这也是这一年媒体报道量下滑唯一较明显的一次。这意味着开发者可以避开AAA级游戏发行去宣传自己的游戏，如1月或7月。

事实上我们并不知道在哪个月有多少游戏进行宣传。我们只知道在Steam上平均有多少游戏发行，这也是500多这一数值的来源。你可以认为某个月所有发行的游戏都以某种形式进行了宣传，但你同时也需要添加所有发布公告的游戏，那些游戏也会去宣传他们即将问世的内容，而已发行的游戏也会发布一些新公告，如关于全新扩展或可下载内容，当然更别提那些现有游戏的一些重大更新了。

所以说500多的数值已经是非常保守估算了。

平台

就平台而言，2016年真的是很有趣的一年。虽然这一年没出现什么新主机，但是有许多重大升级，迭代以及主要辅助程序的问世。PlayStation 4和Xbox One都取得了巨大的进步，Wii U也在去年成为了任天堂的主要主机，并且Switch也即将和我们见面。

而关于媒体报道方面最有趣的还是关于PlayStation 4，它在2016年所获得的媒体报道也远多于2015年。主机已经巩固了其霸主的地位了，所以媒体只是在追逐这一趋势。PlayStation VR和PlayStation 4 Pro在这方面都起到很好的推动作用。

对于Xbox One，这也是比2015年更闪耀的一年（媒体报道增长了18%），其全新主机版本Project Scorpio将在2017年发行。

而Wii U的媒体报道却一年比一年减少（下降了24%）。比起Oculus Rift，这是一个立基平台，一发行便让我们看到了Oculus的潜能以及Wii U的衰落。

到目前为止索尼的宣传策略也非常稳定了，其大多数报道是来自E3以及其它的一些产业大会与活动。

而gamescom虽然没有记者招待会也仍然是媒体报道的主要来源，不过它会在东京电玩展之前举办新闻发布会。

而就像往年那样，在12月初举办的PlayStation Experience活动也取得了巨大的成功并引起了广大媒体的注意。

因为去年没有太多活动，微软的媒体报道也明显减少。最突出的两次是在6月的E3和8月的gamescom，但就像索尼那样，他们在2016年都未组织记者招待会。

似乎在2016年微软对于宣传策略都采取“防守”策略，但实际上他们也一直在努力提高媒体报道率。希望今年他们能够开始发功，毕竟他们的Project Scorpio即将问世了。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Games in the media in 2016 – Overwatch comes out on top

by Thomas Bidaux

To complete the usual series of blog post reviewing the past year, I present to you 2016 and video games in the media.

Like last year, bear in mind that we are using our internal tool to collect these numbers, and understanding the methodology is important. It is particularly worth mentioning this year Pokemon Go is definitely making things crazy. Or crazier than usual I should say. In order to account for that, a lot of the numbers presented here are limited to video games media. We do have General Interest and Tech media in our tools, but they are not as exhaustively collected on our end.

Games

Let’s address Pokemon Go now. I wrote about the game shortly after the launch, and while things have calmed down since July, the game is still receiving an impressive amount of coverage daily, even at times where there is no new update to discuss.

This being said, it wasn’t the number one game mentioned in the games media (important to be specific here), that was Overwatch.

Pokemon Go, while announced in September 2015, received very little coverage until it launched in early July 2016. The amount of coverage collected here is basically only 6 months worth, where Overwatch was already well covered prior to its launch in May.

If we compare these numbers to the ones from last year (which take into account a wider range of types of media), Pokemon Go’s performance is striking as it is a Nintendo game (only Splatoon managed to barely get in the top 15) and a mobile game (there were none in that ranking in 2015).

Overwatch is also impressive as it had 50% more coverage than any game in 2015. The online nature of the game, with its constant updates, coupled with the power of the Blizzard brand, pushed the game to the top here, making it by far the game with the most media presence in 2016.

Overwatch is also striking in the sense that it is one of the only two new IPs in this ranking (The Division being part of the Tom Clancy’s franchise), alongside No Man’s Sky. Many industry commenters pointed to No Man’s Sky’s hype as being the main reason for its fall from grace, and you have to give them credit here, when you see the game is in the top 15 most covered by media game of the year, while coming from a small independent studio. Even the Sony PR machine can’t be the only thing at play here, as many very large productions didn’t manage to make it in these rankings. The game’s hype took on a life of its own, and got big.

For the fans of the respective series, it will interesting to note that Battlefield 1 secured about +40% more coverage than this year’s Call of Duty game. Year-on-year, Call of Duty’s media coverage dropped about -12%.

Monthly Data

For a very long time, we wanted to run these numbers. As ICO is also a PR agency, a lot of the discussions with the studios and the publishers come around to the best timing to do a particular communication. The above is a great way to understand when certain periods are swamped, while some are on the contrary very light.

You’ll see that I removed Pokemon Go from the data. The game was so dominant at its launch that it was skewing the data (more than 7% of the articles in the games media in July 2016 mentioned Pokemon Go). Removing it is not a perfect solution either, but it draws a slightly better picture.

There are different ways to understand these numbers, but here are my takeaways:

You probably want to communicate when the ratio of articles for AAA is lower. It means the coverage is more varied and more likely to be covering your game. From that perspective, November is often deemed a tough month for communications, and both graphs illustrate this well.

When there is a lot of coverage, you also have more chances to be covered, however, the communication will also stand out less as higher volume of articles means more noise overall. In that sense, communicating during the E3 period (June) can be a blessing and a curse at the same time.

While media coverage does drop during the Christmas period, it is the only time in the year where there is a visible drop in the volume of coverage across all media. It means that any other time, there will always be a minimum number of articles that need to be written, and it can pay off to aim for the periods outside of the AAA games releases, like January or July.

While making these graphs, the question came up about the number of games beyond those top 20 games. The truth is, we don’t know how many games communicate in any given month. We do know how many games are released on Steam on average, and this is where the 500+ number comes from. In reality, you can expect all the games releasing to have some form of communication that month, but you would also need to add all the games that are announced, the games that are communicating about their upcoming release, the released games having some newsworthy announcement, like an expansion, or a DLC release, not to mention the live games with significant updates.

That 500+ figure for games is quite conservative in truth.

Platforms

2016 was interesting as far as platforms are concerned. While there were no new console coming out, there were upgrades, iterations and major accessories announced and released. The Playstation 4 and the Xbox One are hitting their stride while the Wii U is in its last year being the main console for the Nintendo line up, with the Switch being around the corner.

What is interesting in the media coverage is the fact that it was yet again a strong year for the Playstation 4, with even more media coverage than in 2015 (+14%). The console has established its lead, the media follow the trend. The PlayStation VR and the Playstation 4 Pro both helped bring the device in front of the media as well.

For Xbox One, it was also a good year compared to 2015 (+18%), a growth in coverage not necessarily being a given considering the most important announcement, Project Scorpio, related to a new version of the console to be released in 2017.

The Wii U year-on-year numbers see a steep decline overall (-24%). Comparing it to the Oculus Rift, which is a niche platform that had its first release in the year both shows how much Oculus has accomplished, and how much the Wii U has dropped.

Sony’s communication strategy is well established by now, with most of its coverage originating from E3 and a combination of their own events and industry conferences.

gamescom, despite the absence of a press conference, is still an important source of coverage overall, but it does come after the press event ahead of the Tokyo Game Show.

And like last year, the Playstation Experience event in early December was a tremendous success for Sony as far as media coverage is concerned.

The Microsoft coverage over the year has fewer events sparking spikes in coverage. The two most notable ones are the E3 in June, and gamescom in August, even though, like Sony, they didn’t put a press conference together in 2016.

Microsoft seemed to be on the defensive in its communication strategy the whole of 2016 and the fact it still managed to grow the coverage is a good sign. Hopefully they will be more aggressive this year, with the Project Scorpio device coming, to shake things up a bit.(source:gamasutra)