Halo 4, Black Ops II top gamer holiday wish list - Nielsen

The 2012 holiday season is closing in and according to research group Nielsen, sequels Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Just Dance 4 are the season's most-anticipated games for consoles.

The research group released its annual holiday wish list study today, revealing Xbox 360 gamers have shown the most interest in Halo 4, but only by a narrow margin over Black Ops II.

PlayStation 3 gamers are most eagerly anticipating Black Ops II, the study found, with Assassin's Creed III in a close second. As for Wii players, Ubisoft's Just Dance 4 proved the most desirable for that platform, on top of Zumba Fitness Core in second.

The full top-ten lists for each platform are below. They are based on Nielsen's "Game Rank," which is the result of the firm combining "key consumer metrics" like awareness and purchase interest into a total rank, and then comparing it to scores for previously released games on the same platform. This is represented in a percentile ranking, denoted in the chart below.

Of note, NBA 2K13 and WWE '13 are the only two titles to rank in the top ten for all three platforms. Additionally, holiday 2012's most-desired titles are all sequels to existing franchises. Lastly, Nielsen said Dishonored "narrowly" missed a top ten spot, possibly due to the general gaming public not being "acutely aware" of the game amidst a heap of sequels.

Nielsen's list was based on data collected between September 9 and October 6, 2012 through online surveys of more than 4,800 males and female "active" gamers between ages 7 and 54. Respondents needed to own at least one current generation console and "actively" play and purchase games on that system to qualify for inclusion in the survey.

Below are Nielsen's most-anticipated holiday 2012 titles, denoted by platform. Italicized titles are platform-exclusives.

Most-anticipated 2012 Xbox 360 titles:
Halo 4 - 99 percent
Call of Duty: Black Ops II - 99 percent
Assassin's Creed III - 98 percent
Resident Evil 6 - 96 percent
NBA 2K13 - 87 percent
Need for Speed: Most Wanted - 82 percent
Medal of Honor Warfighter - 77 percent
WWE '13 - 75 percent
Hitman Absolution - 74 percent
Fable: The Journey - 72 percent

Most-anticipated holiday 2012 PS3 titles:
Call of Duty: Black Ops II - 99 percent
Assassin's Creed III - 98 percent
Resident Evil 6 - 98 percent
NBA 2K13 - 91 percent
WWE '13 - 83 percent
Need for Speed: Most Wanted - 82 percent
Hitman: Absolution - 80 percent
007: Legends - 76 percent
Medal of Honor Warfighter - 74 percent
LittleBigPlanet Karting - 67 percent

Most-anticipated holiday 2012 Wii titles:
Just Dance 4 - 98 percent
Zumba Fitness Core - 95 percent
Lego: Lord of the Rings - 88 percent
Just Dance: Disney Party - 87 percent
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two - 83 percent
NBA 2K13 - 83 percent
WWE '13 - 80 percent
Transformers Prime: The Game - 79 percent
Skylanders Giants - 62 percent
Nickelodeon Dance 2 - 62 percent