Michael Braun's Blog

Inspired by my stats class, I set about to find some data about video game reviews. I’m a frequent visitor to MetaCritic.com – like Rotten Tomatoes, except for lots of different media (music, movies, video games, books, et cetera). I find them to be the best source for composite video game reviews. Seeing their top twenty listing for each current major system, I got to thinking: we could use this data to really say something about how each system is doing in terms of quality games. If it’s the games that sell the system (which may be suspect when you look at the data), this should offer an indication of which system is most likely to produce long-term enjoyment.

Here’s the ranking. I rank by mean score (out of 100) for the top 20 best reviewed games. I then report the mean and then standard deviation in parentheses.
1. XBox 360 – 92.2 (2.7)
2. PS3 – 88.65 (3.6)
3. Wii – 86.2 (4.8)

For handhelds:
1. DS – 87.25 (1.9)
2. PSP – 86.86 (1.7)

The most interesting numbers are in the consoles. Not only does the Wii have the lowest average score, it also has the most deviation. A wide spread of scores means that there aren’t a lot of great games out there for the Wii. It’s completely opposite for XBox. It has the highest mean and the least deviation. There are a lot of great XBox 360 games (a lot of games for that system in general).

Some of the difference occurs due to time. XBox 360 has been out for a year longer than the Wii and PS3. In time, those systems will add better games to their lineups. But Microsoft has also done a great job of harnessing the developers it owns to produce great games exclusively for their system. While Nintendo has a great fleet of designers, and while a lot of Nintendo produced games round out the Wii top 20, they haven’t been able to produce many truly great games. Another sports game featuring Mario and friends has a hard time competing against the likes of BioShock, Gears of War, and Halo.

It’s a bit harder to judge where PS3 has faltered. Part of their problem may be losing key system-exclusive titles, like Grand Theft Auto 4. This is the highest rated game for both the XBox 360 and the PS3. Previous releases were exclusive to PlayStation, which would have given the PS3 a leg up on XBox 360. PS3 also shares at least 1 game with XBox 360, where the XBox version got a significantly higher rating than did the PS3 (The Orange Box).

For the handhelds, they’re in a virtual tie. In this case, the DS has a lot more games out. And it is also selling more units. It looks like the DS is the dominant handheld system, even if it has no better games than PSP.

I’d like to see someone run more numbers. How do great titles and their release dates change overall sales? Are Wii sales showing any signs of slipping? How do game sales (of real games, not Wii Play), correspond to system sales? My numbers are interesting, but they don’t offer much in the way of predictions. If people were buying just on quality of games, XBox 360 should be winning the sales war handily; that is certainly not happening right now.

Anyway, stats can be fun!

The UW Volleyball season has kicked into high gear with the Badgers playing at home for the InnTowner Invitational. The Badgers played Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and again Saturday night. Lauren and I were there for both night games. The team looks great this year (though it is hard to compare, as they lost some great seniors last year; also last season we caught the last few games, when the team was at peak performance). Their wins in all three matches make me think we’re in for another excellent season (with a hopefully better end than last season, when the Badgers were beat out early in the NCAA tournament).

On Friday, the Badgers played Central Michigan and won in straight sets. Though each set started close, the Badgers pulled away quickly. Only in the last set did Central Michigan come within 6 points for the final score. It was still a great match. According to UWBadgers.com, there were nearly 4,300 fans in attendance. The student section, in particular, was overflowing. Disappointedly, the UW band was not there to perform (they usually send at least a small chunk of trumpets, trombones, and drums). But whoever was choosing music did a good job. The Central Michigan fans were particularly entranced when “Jump Around” came on.

Saturday evening was a MUCH closer match, exposing some Badger weaknesses. The Badgers played Brigham Young University and eked out a win in 5 sets. Things started pretty well for the Badgers. The first set was close all the way to the end, with the Badgers winning 27-25 (only 1 off my prediction of 26-24). For the next two sets, however, BYU had some tremendous runs leaving the Badgers in the dust. It looked like the fourth set would go the same way. The Badgers were down early (10-3), but then rallied and won 25-22. With momentum on their side, they performed very well in the fifth set, winning 15-10. I was prepared to see a loss (Lauren and I have never been to a game where the Badgers lost; a snowstorm kept us from their loss in the NCAA tournament last year), but the Badgers won in convincing style – coming from behind, fighting against a dominant team to get the win.

The Badgers aren’t back home until early October, an awful long time to wait. But we are already excited for the next match. Sport doesn’t get much more exciting than UW Volleyball.