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2012 holiday games

It may seem hard to fathom, but it’s less than 42 days till Christmas. Again, we are all faced with finding the perfect gift and in keeping with recent trends, video games and consoles remain among the top picks of gifts requested.Kids and adult gamers alike eagerly await the new releases that occur in November and December each year and the waiting lists for these titles seem never ending. The other day I listened to some of my coworkers discuss upcoming game launches, those they’d identified as “must haves” and couldn’t believe the sheer joy and excitement the pending launch of a video game mustered.The amount of revenue generated by video games sales is absolutely astounding and to give you an idea of its scope, Halo 4 released a week ago, grossed $220 million dollars on the day that it was released. What makes this figure even more impressive is the fact that this particular game is only offered for use with Xbox 360!Besides for getting your hands on new releases, there is always the challenge of knowing which game to purchase, so I did some research. The data varied from site to site, so I decided to go with a proven, reliable source, namely Nielsen, a research firm that focuses on consumer trending.The profiles of Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers tend to be similar in nature and if you have a look at the top picks for the respective consoles, you will immediately see that many of the same titles appear on the top ten lists of both.Must-haves for Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers:Halo 4 — Xbox 360 ONLY; Assassin’s Creed III; Resident Evil 6; NBA 2K13; Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012); WWE ‘13Wii gamers will want:Just Dance 4; Zumba Fitness Core; LEGO- The Lord of the Rings; Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two; NBA 2K13; WWE ‘13Don’t be surprised when you see the prices tags that many of these carry as they aren’t cheap and don’t get overly excited when you see them on sale, it’s probably because a newer version has just launched.You should also pay attention to the ESRB (The Entertainment Software Rating Board) ratings http://www.esrb.org on each of these to ensure the content is age appropriate. If unsure or on the border with certain games, take a minute to view previews to get a better idea of what they are all about at sites such as http://www.ign.com.We’d love to know what topics you’d be interested in learning more about, so e-mail us at TechBuzz@btc.bm