Top 5 Expected Biggest Sellers of Holiday 2011

This holiday season is going to be hard on our wallets as gamers- with so many awesome games releasing in the short span of two months, it’ll be hard to keep up with all the releases as they swiftly flood the retail marketplace. And while many gamers will typically whine about a packed release schedule that demands a great investment of both time and money, the objective optimist will in fact realize one utterly simple, glaringly obvious fact: there has never been a better time to be a gamer.

Whereas trying to keep a track of quality releases may be hard, we at GamingBolt have already tried to make it easier for you. This article is not discussing the potential quality and critical reception of these upcoming games. This article will, instead, try to identify those games that will potentially sell the most, come holiday 2011. With so many games releasing, limiting ourselves to just five games was slightly hard, but we managed in the end.

Presenting to you, a list of five games that will sell the most come Holiday 2011.

5. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (Xbox 360)

There are very few games that are guaranteed success with each installment in the series, and Halo is one of those lucky few. Starting Halo 2, every single Halo game has broken some or the sales record upon release (yes, even Halo Wars, which managed to become the fastest selling console RTS of all time), and every single game has managed to be a multi million seller. The highest selling game on the original Xbox was Halo 2, and the highest selling exclusive on the Xbox 360 right now is Halo 3.

Needless to say, then, the series has a proven track record of selling a shitload of units with every major release, so there should be no reason for the upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the ten year celebratory remake of the Xbox classic, should buck that trend. Sales should be helped if Microsoft market it right (sort of like how Nintendo advertised the Ocarina of Time remake as ‘the greatest game ever!’); considering the fact that most of Halo’s modern fanbase probably hasn’t played Combat Evolved (the series only achieved mainstream popularity with Halo 2) should also spur sales, as should the sales from those who did play the original game, and are keen to play a modern reimagining.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is therefore bound to sell. It’s pretty much a sure shot thing by now. It will certainly emerge as one of the holidays’ biggest sellers, once the dust has settled.

4. Battlefield 3 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Okay, including this one feels a bit like cheating, since Battlefield 3 won’t technically be released during the holiday season. However, it’s being released incredibly close to it, and there can be no doubt that the major chunk of its sales will come from the holidays rush.

Unlike the other games included on this list, Battlefield does not come from a record setting, retail dominating series. The one time that Battlefield really set some ripples at retail was with last year’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which has sold a total of 9 million units worldwide. Although the other Battlefield games always sold well, the series was never a major player in the marketplace.

Until now, with Battlefield 3, and with EA pulling all stops to position this as the major shooter to get this holiday season, marketing the game as an alternative to Modern Warfare 3, a game that does everything better. Of course, EA will be unsuccessful in luring away a large part of Call of Duty’s fanbase in spite of their increased marketing efforts, but quite a few people should bite and buy the game, if only to see what the hype is all about.

Certainly, don’t expect Battlefield 3 to set the charts ablaze like Call of Duty does. However, do expect the game to sell a sizeable number of units over the coming months.