If you were following the news, you have surely seen that Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 was constantly in the top spot of the lists gathering all the most anticipated games of the year. Of course, who wouldn't like a high-tech shooter with all the gizmos that would put James Bond to shame, mixing action with cyberpunk, story elements and Kevin Spacey? But somehow I wasn't that excited about the game. I was waiting for another title to be released. I was counting the days until the launch of Fallout 4, the first title of the franchise. I was so excited, that all I did was play royal vegas casino games on the go, nothing more, not wanting to "cheat on" my most expected game.

 

I wanted Fallout 4 to be the most anticipated game of the year, but it seems that the public had a different opinion. According to a report from Nielsen Media, a famous market research firm, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 was the game that was anticipated by most. Fallout 4 was the second best in the list, tied with Assassin's Creed: Syndicate. Nielsen's measurements were based on search interest, consumer ratings, awareness and purchase interest.

 

But real life has apparently beaten the statistics once again. Black Ops 3 was released, but its success didn't meet my media threshold. The news about Fallout 4, in turn, have made it through my mainstream media filter to the widespread effects of its release.

 

According to the press, sick leaves from work peaked on the day Fallout 4 was released. I know, the "sick day" slip Bethesda has distributed through Twitter is a fake. But still... And there's even more: one of the most famous adult entertainment websites of the internet has reported a very real fall in its visitor count on the day Fallout 4 was released. They have analyzed the data provided by Google Analytics, and saw their traffic drop by 10% between 7 AM and noon, and once again after 6 PM (when, they say, 9 to 5 workers return home after a day at the job).

 

Why is the release of a video game have such "real life" effects? Well, not just any video game, but Fallout 4?

 

First of all, when we compare it to Black Ops 3, we can easily see the reason for it being much anticipated. New Vegas was released in 2010, and we've not seen a proper Fallout game ever since. The Call of Duty franchise, in turn, drops a new title each year, so it's not that anticipated, but rather expected by its fans. Which makes it far less special...