Microsoft reveals top Xbox Live games of 2010

Microsoft’s Larry Hyrb (or Major Nelson as most of us know him) last week published the most popular titles on Xbox Live for 2010. The lists do not appear to be recorded from total downloads but when the actual downloads are at their highest in their first week. So the lists below are based on unique users playing whilst connected to Live in the first week of release, and both Arcade and Indie titles are based on week one downloads.

It’s a little predictable to see the ubiquitous COD franchise and Halo Reach dominating the top two places but the great thing about these lists are the hidden gems that can be found on the Arcade and Indie Titles.

Call of Duty: Black Ops has seen over 1.1 trillion shots fired on Xbox live according to the recent release from Treyarch.

Black Ops the most played game on Xbox live, here is the science bit.

Why are Rockstar not submitting Red Dead Redemption for a BAFTA?

Here at This Is My Joystick and many other gaming sites, it was no surprise to see that many writers have selected Red Dead Redemption as their game of the year recently. At the Spike TV video game awards in Los Angeles before Christmas, it took home four awards which were Game of the Year, best song, original score and downloadable content.

An award-winning game, adored by fans and critics should be enough to delight Rockstar but they are much to cool for that or so it would seem. That is my impression from the recent news that Red Dead Redemption will not be put forward by Rockstar for the BAFTA Video Game Awards in March, at the London Hilton on Park Lane. CVG reported the story in December and a spokesperson for BAFTA explained that the game was “eligible for the awards” but Rockstar had “decided not to put the game forward for consideration”.

I have since e-mailed the main PR contacts for Rockstar on two separate occasions for an official response as to why they were not putting the game forward, but my pleas have fallen on deaf ears. I have not even been dignified with a response as of yet. Instead, I was forced to look at the weird and wonderful internet to see what people are making of this strange decision.