Yahoo tech went with the trend to be safe and picked Witcher 3 as top game of the year but they found the public disagreed and picked Fallout 4 by a large margin.

Here is part of the ariticle;
"2015 has been a great year for games, which made choosing the very best one a challenge. After a lot of deliberation � and hundreds of hours of game play � we chose The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, -
Our readers saw no such uncertainty, opting for Fallout 4 by a huge margin. Just about half of our gaming aficionados picked this post-apocalyptic role-playing game, with Metal Gear Solid V a distant second."

Interesting. I wonder how much this has to do with the fact that the Fallout series is much better known with mainstream gamers compared to the Witcher series? I haven't played Fallout 4 yet so I can't make a direct comparison.

"Over the last month, we surveyed nearly a thousand regular Yahoo Tech readers, asking them to pick their favorite tech products in seven categories..."

I wouldn't call that really representative of all gamers.

And what would you call that then and what would you consider representative of all gamers? It was a public poll,,what more do you want?

How about this fact then - W3 sold over 6 million copies - F4 sold over 12 million copies,,hmmmm

I can see Para's point though. 1,000 is pretty small sample size for this kind of game comparison.

It doesn't surprise me though that Fallout 4 has sold more copies.

Are Yahoo Tech readers the same boobs posting on Yahoo Answers?

Exacly. On a more "expert" community probably the result would differ consideraby and allign more with the authors of the poll, "game experts" themselves.

I'm just saying that a single poll done by a website with a 1000 votes doesn't seem very representative to me.

I've worked in opinion polls and you either need a truly random base of interviewees or a really large number of them to avoid biased results.

So, in order to provide an "actual user poll" a good start would be the user polls of the biggest international gaming websites.

Although it starting to sound here like Witcher 3 fans are starting to come out to defend the game, I think those worries are unwarranted, as I don't think the poll speaks of the quality of the products.

It is a matter of household name recognition. Bethesda sold 20 million copies of Skyrim by January 2014, and I bet at least a million more since then thanks to the Steam sales.

Those that enjoyed Skyrim were anxiously awaiting the next Bethesda game, not to mention that I think you noticed the huge marketing campaign they ran for Fallout 4. So Fallout 4 wins the popularity contest hands down.

Also, Fallout 4 is a simpler game with a more straight forward story, aimed at the more casual gamer, which again, makes it more popular.

CD Projekt Red and the Witcher franchise have proven their quality this year and the awards they have won from the industry confirm that with little doubt.

I expect the next Witcher game, and also the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, to maintain and grow their name recognition and favor with the casual gamer.

+1 Bib


I'm assuming those 20 million copies of Skyrim includes both PC and console versions.

Well, the numbers come from Bethesda, as Steam never publishes sales numbers, so I have to assume it combines all sales in all platforms.

http://time.com/1875/at-20-million-copie...es-of-all-time/

I would think fallout4 where you dont need to have played the previous games would rank higher than witcher 3 which you might need to have played the previous 2 in order to fully appreciate.

That's a good point. I'm sure as heck glad that I played the first two Witcher games before I played the third one. There's a lot of backstory that you will miss out on if you skip the first two games.

And it was a huge marketing campaign for Fallout4.


Even going by my totally unofficial haftassed market research, on TV alone I saw (25) Fallout4 commercials to (2) Witcher commercials.

My kids loved (and still love) Skyrim. Picking up Fallout4 for $42 was a no brainer.

I haven't played any of the Witcher series, but the 3rd person viewpoint and typical medieval fantasy setting aren't plusses in my book.

All valid points. Both games are top games but with different play for different interest. In my brief encounter with W3 I did think it was graphically better than Skyrim but the play was more like being in a movie than wandering an open world. Now with over 30 hours in F4 I find it is on par with Skyrim for graphics and with less cutscenes and movie and more wondering and gun play which suits my style better.

At some point I will give W3 another chance and maybe come to like that style of play but for now F4 still holds my interest. I do think F4 will have a longer longevity then W3 because it is, or will be, so much more modible.

I uninstalled F4 because it bored me to tears.

I did complete every. single. quest/task in Witcher 3.

So no doubt here which one is GOTY for me,

Fallout ... never changes.
I did play the first three, but didn't bother with F3, FNV... so far also not F4... or the vault toy thingy.

I'll happily watch a lets play of any of them... but the entertainment is the player, not the game really.

I didn't enjoy vanilla W1 or W2, but did *really* enjoy them with the FCR mods installed on both..
And I've played most of the quests in W3 (despite crawling over the whole map on all three plays I still find additional bits ~ some of which are new to the other players I speak with regularly too.

Popularity is almost universally regarded as the indicator of what makes something "best". The rationale is of course, that the popular thing is the thing that the most people like, so therefore it is superior.

Sammy Davis jr was a better singer and performer than Justin Beiber. But Beiber is more popular.

OK, they are not contemporaries.

Honda Civics outsell Corvette Stingrays.

So while it may be true that the most popular is best, always consider that the most popular is the thing that offers the most things to the most people. It is the most accessible option to the largest group. To do that, typically you compromise.

Consider a sim like Grand Prix Legends. It was in its day top-flite. Need for Speed outsold it.

Fallout has the bigger marketing and visibility,thus more buyers, thus more votes.

Any reasonable jury-based award still went to W3 so far. Technical and production values are simply higher (just look at basic stuff like HUD, Journals, Voice Acting).

It would be interesting, compared to production and marketing budget, which genetates more profit.