UK Chart: Tomb Raider finishes top, SimCity enjoys strong launch
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Tomb Raider reboot sets new sales record for the series and enjoys the best-selling opening weekend of the year so far.
Square Enix's reboot of Tomb Raider has topped the UK charts this week, comfortably beating Aliens: Colonial Marines to become the best-selling launch of 2013 so far.
Tomb Raider's week one sales were over double what Aliens: Colonial Marines managed when it launched three weeks ago. Both games were released on a Tuesday and are therefore dubbed "event" titles by UK sales collator Chart-Track. Games in the UK traditionally launch on Friday.
All in all, developer Crystal Dynamics' new take on Lara Croft has set new opening-week sales records for the franchise, selling twice as many copies as Tomb Raider: Legend, the previous strongest launch for the series, managed way back in 2006.
EA's SimCity finished in second place, managing a strong launch despite a weekend of connectivity problems for its users. EA has promised anyone who tried to play SimCity over the weekend a free game, but hasn't given any more details yet.
Namco Bandai's Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 debuts in third place, with The Sims 3: University Life starting in fourth place. This is the first week in 2013 when four new games have occupied the top of the charts.
FIFA 13 is hanging on reliably in fifth, and Crysis 3--last week's chart topper--drops to sixth.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is seventh, Far Cry 3 eighth, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance ninth, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is 10th.
The Top 20 UK charts for the week ending March 9:
1. Tomb Raider
2. SimCity
3. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3
4. The Sims 3: University Life
5. FIFA 13
6. Crysis 3
7. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
8. Far Cry 3
9. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
10. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
11. Assassin's Creed III
12. Need for Speed: Most Wanted
13. Skylanders Giants
14. Hitman Absolution
15. Aliens: Colonial Marines
16. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
17. Halo 4
18. Grand Theft Auto IV
19. Dead Space 3
20. Forza Horizon
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Martin Gaston has absolutely never at all had the song from Beauty and the Beast sung to him at any point during his life, ever.
86 comments
Tomb Raider was amazing and I hope they do more with the rebooted franchise.
On the other hand I am disappointed with the paying public as they fully endorse and support constantly connected DRM from the likes of SimCity. Shame on consumers and their inability to be strong by supporting such horrid technology. As long as people continue to throw money at it, it will only evolve and get worse till eventually every game will be infected with it.
Tomb Rider definitely deserves that first place, great game. Looks good, plays good, story... well, isn't brilliant but good enough to make the game interesting.
P.S. Totally agree with attached TressFX video, in game it looks... wrong. Played through entire game on X360 and never noticed that hair aren't realistic enough, but on PC with tressFX on (aside of 20-30 fps drop) in every cutscene instead of watching what's going on on screen I watched the simulated hair behaving in completely unrealistic way, very distracting.
allz I did was day dream in work about getting home and playing it I enjoyed Tomb Raider that much and iv not been like that since San Andreas when I was in school.. genuinely didn't want it to end
When I look at Tomb Raider I see "Hunger Games" ^^... That's what I saw in that trailer, she had a bow hunting stuff etc, and that little girl, she has to save ahah, no wonder it's "top seller", they give the people what they want...
Playing Tomb Raider is a blast. It's one of those games you keep looking at how far you've progressed because you don't want it to end. I only regret not playing it on the hard difficulty instead of normal. I'm not the best gamer out there but I've only died a couple times in 14 hours of play.
TR is a great game ! never thought Lara would get involved in so much gun play action !
the parachute bit was a bit strange ? my rare is 9.5
Great game, well deserved, hard to find a non RPG game that offers way over 10h in solid main story content alone, it's about damn time someone did.
@jorge69696 The really sad thing is the more noise we enlightened made about it, the more we probably drove up sales. No publicity is bad publicity as they say, people probably bought it just to see what all the fuss was about......Die EA.
6 Like Glad to see Tomb Raider doing good. Just completed it last night at 100 percent. Watch out Drake, Lara's back! :P
2 Like TR is a fun play with a lot to do and explore. You can't go wrong playing this game.
@FlashCharge graphics aside, is it better or worse than the last one? is it one of those wait for the price to drop games?
@petez34 @FlashCharge I was a huge fan of the original TR games but did not enjoy Legend or Anniversary anywhere near as much. To me they felt like less of Survival/Adventure games and more of an Arcadey Streamlined Platformers, but they were still worth playing. I did enjoy Underworld a little more than those, but the new reboot is the most fun I have had with the series since the 90s.
I just finished it this morning on hard mode and my only real complaint is the regenerating health. If I had to use health packs or have MGS3 style wound treatment I think I would have enjoyed the game even more, but putting that aside its definitely one of my favorite TR games and it's definitely worth picking up and playing through as soon as possible.
@petez34 @FlashCharge It is much better than Tomb Raider: Underworld. There is really no comparison.
@petez34 @FlashCharge I was never a big fan of TR, and played only 2, 3 and 4. This one is, by far, the best for me.
@ollirg @petez34 @FlashCharge I have never played any TR game before and not even a fan. But this game totally got me into it. This is one of the best game I've played. Have not finished yet though.
@petez34 @FlashCharge @petez34 @FlashCharge @petez34 @FlashCharge if you are strapped for cash you can.always wait. I have found TR to be a blast. When ever you decide to play TR you will not be disappointed.
A:CM still selling...and more than DS3 which is 100x a better game...what a shame. Why do they still show these stupid brainless UK charts?
1 Like @GamerOuTLaWz .... i bet black Ops 2 is within the top 3 of the american charts and thats frankly all i need to say in response to the "brainless" comment
1 Like I love the titles of Tomb Raider, And I think all most of them were really great! (BUT THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS).
They really deserve the 1st place!
this new game seems to be promissing and breath-taking. waiting for more reviews.
I am to purchase the game soon though :) I am in love with Lara
4 Like All I see is people prefer to play games that offer little to no challenge. It's a shame my demographic is not represented more in smarter games.
@Imperiacommando @petez34 Almost every game nowadays is not even a shadow of what games used to be, of course there was some bad games too but overall back in the day we could get much much fantastic storys, awsome challenges, when overcome would be highly rewarding for the gamer, creativity was abundant, im not saying that there isnt any creativity now, there is, but highly conditioned for the sake of sales, storys are bland nowadays, boring, insipid, as for dificulty.. well why not when purchasing a game nowadays they just give us a monkey pushing a button, everything is watered down, dumbed down made mainstream for the sake of sales, i don´t see a worthy strategy game for a long time worth buying, i´m starting to doubt if i ever see one again. Well, i like all game genres but arcade, (can´t stand it, don´t have time for it) in a year if i find 3 games that are really worthy and memorable is a miracle.
6 Like I'm really happy to hear Tomb Raider is doing well, especially since so many were expecting it to follow in DmC's path.
2 Like How is Black Ops 2 still in the top ten ? seriously as a former fan of the series how are people still not bored of the game yet ?
love the game. yes it may borrow from others. but seriously so many games do .
As a standalone adventure , its the best since uncharted 2. And i defo want sequels to this new lara.
1 Like Fair played to Crystal Dynamics making Tomb Raider a success. I actually don't particularly like it, I've played about four hours of it on the PC but I think it plays way too much like the Assassins Creed and Uncharted series (which unsurprisingly are two series I don't like either).
But that's just me, I prefer the older, much slower paced Tomb Raider games with puzzles you have to actually have a good think about. Making a game in that style today would just be a non-starter, and even if they tried it, it definitely wouldn't have same sort of appeal (and accompanying budget) the new Tomb Raider game has. I'll probably go back to it later in the week and give it another go, but every time I hit a quick time event I just completely lose the will to play on. Personally I'd just prefer they scrapped the button prompts and just had them as little in engine cutscenes ferrying you from one scene to another, at least then I could have a swig of my coffee without risking death every bloody time!
But I get it, practically everyone else loves it, so they must be doing something right. Though it is kind of weird seeing Tomb Raider, Hitman and SimCity all in the chart
@barrybarryk Have you tried the various optional tombs? Some of them actually require you to think.
I don't really like certain quick time events too. (Falling down water falls, going through a small gap and you only walk forward etc.) I find them annoying. But I personally like the touch during her struggles with people/animals. (Wolves swarming Lara, humans struggling to kill her), as I feel they give some tension in the game.
Conversation powered by Livefyre
Content you might like…
-
Just Cause dev says PS4 will 'out-power most PCs for years to come'
Avalanche Studios co-founder says Sony's PlayStation 4 is "a perfect fit for the types of games we do."
- Mar 11, 2013
Users who looked at this article also looked at these content items.
Hot Stories
Newsmakers
-
Xbox One has preowned fee - Report
Microsoft confirms all discs must be installed to HDD to play; secondhand owners required to pay an unspecified fee. Full Story
- Posted May 21, 2013 11:44 am PT
-
Xbox One will launch this year
Microsoft formally announces Xbox 360 successor during media event; will support live TV and Skype; features 500GB hard drive, 8GB RAM, Blu-ray drive; 64-bit architecture. Full Story
- Posted May 21, 2013 10:09 am PT
Featured Stories
-
The Simpsons writer signs on for Angry Birds movie
Emmy-winning writer Jon Vitti, who penned "Mr. Plow" episode of The Simpsons, working on 2016 film based on Rovio's game. Full Story
- Posted May 20, 2013 12:23 pm PT
-
Grand Theft Auto V premium bundles revealed
$150 Collector's Edition includes money bag, snapback hat, blueprint map, artwork, and various in-game items and bonuses; all preorders receive access to pilot atomic blimp vehicle. Full Story
- Posted May 23, 2013 5:44 am PT
-
Atari to sell RollerCoaster Tycoon, Test Drive franchises at auction
Bankrupt publisher hoping to bring in at least $22 million from upcoming asset auctions. Full Story
- Posted May 23, 2013 9:43 am PT
-
38 Studios court case begins
Arguments in legal battle between defunct Amalur developer and Rhode Island presented in court today; state claims it has "avalanche" of evidence against 38 Studios. Full Story
- Posted May 22, 2013 1:51 pm PT
-
Katie Couric acknowledges one-sided violent video games report
Network journalist acknowledges one-sided violent video game report; invitations to Bungie and the Entertainment Software Association were declined. Full Story
- Posted May 20, 2013 10:45 pm PT
Submit News
Related Game
Related Games
Recent News
-
GameStop shares slide on Xbox One preowned rumors
[UPDATE] Share value down more 13 percent today amid new reports claiming GameStop's business could be hurt by Microsoft's rumored used game policy for...
