It will come as no surprise to video game consumers that the upcoming game Halo: Reach, published by Microsoft Game Studios, leads in volume of online conversations about new games within popular social media video game communities, but it may come as a surprise to game publishers that it was mentioned over three times as often as Call of Duty: Black Ops in the month of July.

In addition to upcoming game data, the most recent issue Overtone, Inc.’s GameVoice video game industry report reveals top line rankings of 300+ video games, consoles, publishers, genres, retailers, and other hot topics and summarizes consumer sentiment and volume across these categories providing insight into millions of social media conversations.

The 30+ page July 2010 report compiled from comments in video game forums and message boards, offers several valuable insights including:

Platform Insights: The Sony Playstation 3 generated the highest conversation volume of any platform with over 73,000 comments . Microsoft Xbox 360 followed with 62,000 comments surpassing the PS3 in daily comments on July 21, 2010, when the Medal of Honor beta version went live on Xbox. The Nintendo Wii rounded out third place with almost 34,000 comments, followed by the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS. The not yet released Nintendo 3DS, announced in June, had a decrease in comments in July to 6,462.

More Platform Insights: Although Nintendo’s DS and 3DS platforms are lowest in terms of total comment volume, the handheld devices rank highest in positive sentiment. The Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 rank the lowest in the sentiment index.

Publisher Insights: Electronic Arts (EA) leads in online conversation volume with over 26,000 comments focused primarily around EA developer BioWare’s Dragon Age franchise and the upcoming Medal of Honor game.

Released Game Insights: With over 32,000 comments, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the most talked about game in the month of July. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is the second most talked about released game with about half as many online comments, and Red Dead Redemption, which led the conversation in May, dropped to fifth place in July with 10,000+ comments.

"In the July report we see noticeably lower sentiment across several categories, likely a result of fading enthusiasm about June’s big E3 Conference announcements. However, several games and products continue to generate significant comment volume and those will be the ones to watch over the next several months," said Michelle Mathis, GameVoice Product Manager.