Famitsu Ranks Consoles by Game Library

[Ares]

Famitsu Ranks Consoles by Game Library
By Mike Sharkey | Mar 24, 2010
Japanese videogame magazine digs into its game review archives to create rankings.
The debate rages on gaming forums and in comment sections every day: which console has the best games? Japanese videogame magazine Famitsu decided to take an objective approach to the question, scouring its game review archives to compile overall console-library scores.

The folks at 1Up spotted the Famitsu story and detailed how the magazine's staff went about formulating its scores. Famitsu tags titles with its Gold Award when they achieve a review score of 32/40 or greater.


The below results tell us the platform, number of Gold games out of total games reviewed, and the overall percentage of Gold titles:

1. PlayStation 3 (77/171, 45.03%)
2. Xbox 360 (104/240, 43.33%)
3. GameCube (87/240, 36.25%)
4. PSP (90/388, 23.20%)
5. Xbox (40/185, 21.62%)
6. Nintendo 64 (38/183, 20.77%)
7. PlayStation 2 (393/1997, 19.68%)
8. Wii (50/257, 19.46%)
9. Nintendo DS (152/887, 17.14%)
10. Dreamcast (62/407, 15.23%)
11. Game Boy Advance (90/618, 14.56%)
12. Sega Saturn (52/930, 5.59%)
13. PlayStation (130/2645, 4.93%)
14. Super NES (55/1407, 3.90%)
15. NES (34/955, 3.56%)
16. PC Engine (22/628, 3.5%)
17. Genesis (11/534, 2.06%)
18. Game Boy (15/1071, 1.40%)
19. Wonder Swan (1/179, 0.55%)
20. Game Gear (0/184, 0%)

According to Famitsu, it's the PS3 game library by a nose over the Xbox 360, based on percentage of Gold games. However, the 360 has 27 more Gold titles. The debate, inevitably, will rage on.

As reported by GameSpy.

 

[MinusTheBear]

Great post Ares. The percentage numbers really do not mean anything to gamers but the total number of what they call "gold games" should and that is what the list should be based upon. The playstation 2 should be at the top of the list with the playstation 3 trailing behind a few other consoles like the xbox 360 and playstation. I would also separate consoles and handhelds/portable gaming devices. Two separate markets. Interesting stats but not suprising.

 

[Ares]

Thanks Minus, with all the numbers I believe gamers will take away what they want to.

 

[abboudc]

While interesting, there are a couple of things wrong with their "objective" analysis. Minus pointed out the most obvious.

The second is that cross platform games and exclusives need to be counted in separate buckets.

This appears to be an attempt to appear objective while not being objective. There's no reason to choose the methodology they did without having an end ranking in mind.

 

[MinusTheBear]

The numbers are still interesting. I am shocked at how many games were reviewed for the Saga Saturn (930) and only 534 for the Genesis. It makes me want to look this up further because I always under the impression the Sega Saturn was a flop and not around long compared to the Genesis which was a very popular console and had some really fun games. I would have predicted the Genesis would have the larger game library.

 

[Ares]

The Sega Saturn was first released on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe. The system was discontinued in North America, Europe, and Australia in 1998, and in 2000 in Japan. It sold 9.5 million units worldwide so it had a three year run in the North America. The Genesis was released to North America in 1989 and was discontinued in 1995. The Genesis had 914 games by the time it was discontinued. Hope this helps Minus.