Modern Warfare 3, Activision’s latest first-person shooter, was predicted to be the top-selling video game despite healthy competition from EA’s Battlefield 3 released in October. Those predictions are coming true as several sources have claimed that Modern Warfare 3 is on par to break first week sales records.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around both games online.

Battlefield 3 vs. Modern Warfare 3

Modern Warfare 3 mentions spiked this week, but so far have not surpassed Battlefield 3 mentions.

Battlefield 3 sentiment

Conversations around Battlefield 3 have been 71% positive online.

Modern Warefare 3 sentiment

Conversations around Modern Warfare 3 have been 81% positive online.

Content category distribution

Battlefield 3 is being mentioned more often via Twitter, while Modern Warfare 3 has more mentions via blogs.

How will online buzz translate to sales?

EA Sports released Madden 12 this week to mixed reviews. We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Madden buzz

Madden mentions are already up 25% following the release of Madden 12 this year.

Madden sentiment

Negative buzz around Madden increased following the game’s release. Conversations around Madden are currently 50% negative.

Content breakdown

97% of Madden chatter came via Twitter, 86% of mentions were made by males and 85% in English.

For further analysis, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Zynga, whose mission is to connect the world through games, will file for an IPO with the SEC as early as tomorrow with a valuation between $15 billion and $20 billion.

Zynga sentiment

Conversations around Zynga are currently 68% positive. The word “report” appeared in 13% of posts and was 68% negative. Upon further investigation using Social Radar, we determined that negativity was due to reports that Zynga would follow in the footsteps of LinkedIn and Pandora and only offer less than 10% shares to the public.

FarmVille chatter

Chatter around Zynga’s most well-know game, FarmVille for Facebook, has steadily dropped 33% over the last year.

Sony told U.S. lawmakers that an intruder left a taunting message for the company in a recent computer attack but it still doesn’t know who stole personal information for more than 100 million of its PlayStation Network online-gaming accounts. Sony said the hackers deleted any traces of their attack, which is regarded as one of the biggest-ever data breaches.

Sony sentiment

Negative chatter spiked to its highest point yesterday, 58% negative.

Will users be able to trust Sony again? Will we see a trend in massive data breaches? Will you think twice before entering personal information online?

As we move into day 11 of the PlayStation Network fiasco, Sony continues to rebuild its beleaguered network while apologizing profusely to users.

Sony believes hackers obtained user account information, including home addresses, email addresses, birth dates, usernames and passwords and potentially even credit card numbers.

PlayStation chatter

Apparently some users don’t appreciate what they have until its gone. Chatter around PlayStation is up 79% as more news about the outage is revealed.

PlayStation sentiment

PlayStation sentiment, which is generally between 80-90% positive, spiked up to 65% negative.

XBox sentiment

Meanwhile, XBox sentiment is currently 81% positive. Can Microsoft XBox capitalize on Sony’s PlayStation Network woes and steal market share?

E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) has concluded and we have analyzed the most discussed announcements from the show.  Microsoft’s motion-tracking Project Natal unsurprisingly took the top spot followed with the PSP Go.  Metal Gear Solid, the most discussed game, came in third.  Some other notable mentions are Gran Turismo 5 versus Forza 3, for which GT5 generated the most chatter.  Also, Scribblenauts is quite far down the list, but today the game as been generating a strong upsurge in mentions and we expect this one to get a bit more attention over the next few days.

Wednesday we posted a sentiment comparison between Project Natal and the PS3 motion-tracking controller you can see here.

The full top listing is in the chart after the jump, displayed by the percentage of E3 discussions mentioning that announcement.  The Top 10 is in the image below:

Top 10:

Continue reading…

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is wrapping up in Los Angeles. At their respective keynotes, both Microsoft and Sony made major announcements in a similar vain.  Microsoft presented their Project Natal, a camera-based device which can track full body motion without needing a controller. Shortly after, Sony demonstrated a prototype high-precision motion tracking controller for the Playstation 3.  Both exciting and impressive in different ways.

We decided to see the web’s reaction to these announcements, and threw the Wii Motion Plus accessory in for comparison.  MotionPlus is an add-on coming for the Nintendo Wii controllers which improves their motion tracking accuracy and capabilities.

Project Natal had the most positive response. Additionally, in regards to overall conversation volume, it had around three times what Sony’s motion controller generated.  Interestingly, after these announcements, we saw a notable increase in negative chatter around the Wii Motion Plus, with negativity increasing around 8%. This is attributed to users seeing these new developments as superior to Nintendo’s long-time-coming accessory.