Nielsen yesterday released a list of what it says are the most anticipated console video game titles for the remainder of 2012. According to a Nielsen blog post, the list was “derived from combining eight key consumer metrics, including Awareness and Purchase Interest, into one overall score.”

Topping the list of anticipated Xbox 360 games is Halo 4. Even with a new developer, gamers can’t wait for more Master Chief. Specific details about the game have recently come to light in the newest issue of GameInformer.

The most anticipated game for the Playstation 3 is Assassin’s Creed III. The details for the game have been slowly leaking out over the course of the last few weeks, and much has been made of its setting – the U.S. Revolutionary War. Assassin’s Creed III was second in the list of anticipated Xbox 360 games.

The Nintendo Wii list had fewer titles on it, but the most anticipated game for the system was Madden NFL 13. The yearly football title was in the top four of every list. Oddly, many of the games on the Wii list were movie tie-in products, including Battleship, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Men In Black.

Other titles that ranked high on the lists include Resident Evil 6, Max Payne 3, and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

A majority of the titles in the lists are sequels for or remakes of popular franchise titles. In fact, of the 11 titles most anticipated for the Xbox 360, 10 of them are from franchise titles from known and popular series. All 11 of the most anticipated Playstation 3 titles are large franchise titles, and none of them are exclusive to Sony’s console. The one “original” title on the Xbox 360 list is Kinect: Star Wars, and that’s obviously as large of an intellectual property as you can get. Still, there hasn’t yet been a Star Wars game of that type, and I suspect there won’t be a second now that the carbonite freeze chamber dance-off is public knowledge.

Are you anticipating some of these same titles? Lamenting the fact that originality is simply not in demand? Let me know in the comments below.