Pre-E3 Game Mindshare

Electronic Gaming Business, April 21, 2004

Going into E3 2004, Halo 2 continues to dominate gamer interest, according to the number of information requests registered at GameSpot Trax since the beginning of the year. The next GTA sequel as well as MMOG World of Warcraft remain white hot as well. Half Life 2 (#7) may be suffering from its delays and a dearth of preview material. Generally, the franchises are doing their job in leveraging their automatic audiences for upcoming titles. Microsoft's Fable is the only new design to crack the top ten. We will do a spot check after E3 and its immediate press coverage to see which titles emerged from the show with new or renewed buzz.

Information Requests indicate all pages clicked by users containing content related to the title. Gamers Tracking indicates GameSpot premium subscribers registering to track new content on the game. Searches indicates all search box entries pertaining to the title.

Contact: Josh Larson, josh@gamespot.com

Rank   Title\Publisher                 Platform   Release
                                                  Date
1      Halo 2\Microsoft                Xbox       11/15/04
2      GTA: San Andreas\Rockstar       PS2        10/18/04
3      World of Warcraft\Blizzard      PC         7/1/04
4      The Sims 2\EA                   PC         7/1/04
5      Metal Gear Solid 3\Konami       PS2        11/1/04
6      Gran Turismo 4\Sony             PS2        9/30/04
7      Half Life 2\Vivendi             PC         8/1/04
8      Fable\Microsoft                 Xbox       9/1/04
9      Resident Evil 4\Capcom          GC         11/9/04
10     Kingdom Hearts II\Square-Enix   PS2        12/30/04

Rank   Title\Publisher                 Info        Gamers
                                       Requests    Tracking
1      Halo 2\Microsoft                10,800,935  1483
2      GTA: San Andreas\Rockstar       6,257,236   1318
3      World of Warcraft\Blizzard      6,232,149   816
4      The Sims 2\EA                   5,834,701   395
5      Metal Gear Solid 3\Konami       4,982,342   959
6      Gran Turismo 4\Sony             4,757,839   339
7      Half Life 2\Vivendi             3,784,717   531
8      Fable\Microsoft                 3,551,550   817
9      Resident Evil 4\Capcom          3,412,075   574
10     Kingdom Hearts II\Square-Enix   2,697,768   331

Rank   Title\Publisher                 Searches

1      Halo 2\Microsoft                124,358
2      GTA: San Andreas\Rockstar       101,175
3      World of Warcraft\Blizzard      39,104
4      The Sims 2\EA                   81,468
5      Metal Gear Solid 3\Konami       8,304
6      Gran Turismo 4\Sony             59,324
7      Half Life 2\Vivendi             74,241
8      Fable\Microsoft                 59,196
9      Resident Evil 4\Capcom          52,256
10     Kingdom Hearts II\Square-Enix   63,192

Games tracked between 1/1/04 and 4/19/04

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