Led by THQ's Cars, the top three games remain the same for the third week running, while budget releases fill up the rest of the chart.
Anyone looking for a major change to the UK all-format game chart will be sorely disappointed by the results of the week of August 6 to 12. The top three games remain the same for the third week in a row: Cars held pole position for the fourth week running, even though its film inspiration was knocked off the top slot by Miami Vice. Meanwhile, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and New Super Mario Bros. sit at numbers two and three, respectively.
With only a minor reshuffle, the rest of the top 10 remains largely unchanged. In fact, the only new entry in the top 20 is Monster House, which limped in at number 18. THQ's film tie-in only makes it into the top 40 at all after its second week on release, no doubt assisted by the release of the movie at cinemas last weekend.
The dominance of budget releases, and specifically The Sims, has been a big talking point of the British games industry this week. The Sims series and its add-on packs take up six places on the top 40 thanks to high-profile discounting from retailers such as Amazon and Woolworths. The story made the front page of UK trade magazine MCV, which reported concerns from independent retailers after The Sims games have been selling for as little as £5 each. According to MCV, "The fact that heavy discounting at [Woolworths] can elevate a handful of titles into the Top 40 demonstrates both the fragility of the summer market and the power of budget software."
One glance at the rest of the chart certainly provides evidence for the success of budget and low-price releases, with both Brain Training and Pro Evolution Soccer 5 holding onto prominent positions. Dead Man's Chest is the only Pirates of the Caribbean game to hang on in the chart, with The Legend of Jack Sparrow dropping to number 13, while Over the Hedge makes reappears by jumping up from 11 to 10. Another budget EA title to make it back into the top 10 was Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
Next week sees the release of ProStroke Golf: World Tour 2007 and Premier Manager 2006-2007, and it remains to be seen whether they can shake up the budget-dominated chart.
Guy Cocker is the Editor of GameSpot UK, a handheld gaming fan, and someone who actually managed to use video games to lose weight. He recently took up the position of games expert on BBC 5 live and is a BAFTA games judge.
Yeah, I think that Nintendo is rapidly catching up in the UK market due to constant exclusives raiding the top 10 and 20, and if you go in a GAME store the DS section is now generously advertised. So is the PSP, but there has been a serious decline of AAA software recently. Well, Syphon Filter and Tekken have yet to make an appearance over here though.
@ McSkombi Haha, no. Unless you completely disregard handhelds, the case is like this: Japan: Nintendo >>>>>>>> Sony >>>>>> Microsoft. (DS weekly sales regurlarly triple everything else combined.) USA: Nintendo > Sony > Microsoft. Last months hardware sales was 584k Nintendo, 402k Sony and 218k Microsoft. NDS - 377,000 PS2 - 241,000 360 - 206,000 GBA - 163,000 PSP - 161,000 GCN - 44,000 XBX - 12,000 Europe: Harder to get numbers for as it's composed of several markets but my guess would be Sony (primarily PS2) = Nintendo (primarily DS & GBA) > Microsoft.
Did only 89 people buy games? (The minimum for 10 items with each having more than the other) That list sux
Unfortunately, summer is an awful time for games here.. August/September is the beginning of the Christmas build up, THEN things will start getting interesting. Oh, and please dont categorize us as gamers who only like 'fookin' guns, we could easily label those from the 'States as players who like Tom Clancy games and Football (NCAA football 07 anyone?)
I dont see why Pro Evo should not be on the list because its cheap to buy and its easily the best football game on the market and football is the most played and supported sport here in the UK. The only answer i can think of is that Pro Evo 6 is coming out in october.
@ 9997 Japan: SONY > Nintendo >>>>>> Microsoft UK: SONY > MIcrosoft = Nintendo USA: SONY > Microsoft > Nintendo (Don't forget: Sony is Market leader)
The movie games, Pro Evolution, & the 2 Sim's games have no right to be on the list. So here is a revised list: 1 GTA: LCS (PS2) 2 NSMB (DS) 3 Brain Age (DS) 4 Need for Speed Most Wanted (PS2) Those are the games that have any right to be there. I can't wait for the UK to get out of this drought because that list is sad. Oh well, NSMB & Brain Age are still selling strong.
I know there's been no 360 games released for a while but it still looks a good week for the PS2. September looks good for 360 games though.
WTF!!!! I don't play any of those games and no one I know from the UK plays any of those games except GTA and Mario. This must be some sort of mistake.
glad to see Pro Evolution Soccer 5 and The Sims2 in the charts, both great games. Cars being there is expected with parents buying it for kids the day after they watch the movie (please get rid of these types of games)
I think it's because nothing new is comming out till the end of the year so thats why the charts are staying relatively the same. We don't even get dead rising or metal gear 3 subsistance till the end of the year.
Dear god.....sims.. cars.... gta... and pro evo in the top 10? wtf uk gamers have no taste for sure, just goes to show how freakin casual we are, it sucks so do our "gaming" shops too no one actually gets the good Fun itneresting games but casual crap like fifa and need for speed (which sucks) sorry but that list is bul***** *sigh* i'm a gamer get me outta here!
I'm not really suprised by the UK charts. Firstly because quite a few British casual gamers (like said earlier) would pick the movie/game tie-in or the nieve parents of the child would pick the movie/game tie-in. As for GTA well it always has dominated the UK since Vice City came about....Again too release dates for certain games such as Tekken: Dark Ressurection and Dead Rising have an September or October release in Europe....Oh their is one suprise however and thats how well the DS and its games are selling :)
Cars is number one, but it is not kids buying it. It is parents, buying it to keep their spoiled brats amused over the summer holiday. All the real gamers are spending their money enjoying the summer. I can't wait til my kids play video games. I won't let them have a turd game. They will be weaned on Final Fantasy.
This is for all you **** wits bashing the UK charts. THERE ARE NO GAMES BEING RELEASED RIGHT NOW!! Of course its gonna be full of crap games, hell they arent really that crap just ancient. Like someone said, Cars is out on every machine, of course it's gonna be at the top, and its a kids game, shocker I know, kids actually play games. I will admit the guy who said we dont buy loco roco cause it has no guns has a valid point. People in the country are idiots, they want "street" characters with guns and bad attitudes like the awful 50 cent game over games with innovative design and gameplay. They are called chavs, they are the dregs of society here in England. When actual good games come out this chart will change, until then dont expect any great changes.
er, theres no 360 games in the chart because no 360 games have been released for like a month or more you idiots
Diamond_Joe, you're not english so please don't make generalisations like that. I'm english, and I don't like crazy frog, chico song, and I think the fact that the sims are doing well show that we don't just care about 'fookin' guns. Sure, there are a large number of people who like things like that, but they are by no means the only type of people here, and if I recall Big Brother was actually started in mainland europe first, so doesn't that say a lot about the taste of you guys? I know you are not trying to be offensive, but making generalisations like that is insulting, and always incorrect. I'm sure as you are aware as a eurolander that you could say that any country in europe has bad taste in games and music by picking on certain things, and it just winds me up when I see people making comments about other countries on here that are just so wrong, especially about japanese. Most of the gamers I know don't like most of the games that are in the charts, its just kids and casuals at the moment, while sony doing so well is because marketing for games isn't done so well over here and so people only know of the biggest names. Hopefully the new nintendo adverts will change that and the 360 sold out at launch, so we aren't all sony whores. EDIT: This is to OmegaOrtega as well (just saw his post too :P).
sales of all games are poor at the moment since the only thing being released at the moment are movie licensed. all this chart shows are the games that the casual gamers are buying while the real gamers are waiting for things to pick up again in september. next month the charts will be very different
You can tell that the majority of sales here in the UK are kids at the moment because the people who like games either have a 360 or saving for one of the next gen consoles. I only own one game on that list and thats Pro Evo which is the only good game on it. I havent bought a game for a while now and i dont intend on buying another game on current gen because ill be getting a 360 in the next few weeks and there are plenty of games out or will be coming out soon that i want on that. I wouldnt say i have bad taste in games because at the moment the industry as a whole sucks and its 8 year old kids who make up the majority of the sales here.
Just because a game is multiplatform doesnt mean they are counting all sales from it, they are counting the PS2 sales because its outselling from the other platforms.
c`mon guys . you didn`t notice that this is a multiplatform chart and CARS is in number 1 because it released on 8 platforms (PS2+PC+PSP+Xbox+X360+GC+GBA and DS) .so that`s why cars on top
cars is a decent game you know and pro evo 5 is doing AMAZING, came out almost a year ago and people still buying, i got it on release day
The English have really bad taste in Games and Music. (The Chico Song/ Crazy Frog need I say more :D) This chart does not surprise me at all, there is very little money going into advertising quality new and interesting games over there. The English love the psp as sony have kicked alot of ass in the UK for years now: but they don't buy Loco Roco cause "there's no fookin guns" :( Don't get me wrong I like the English, there really cool in general but for some reason they prefer Big Brother instead of Curb your.. It is a shame gamespot don't show the other big Euro games markets like France, German, Italy or Spain. If you combined these 5 charts together you would get a better idea of what us Eurolanders like to play.
Im English, and let me say... The gaming industry there sucks. "There"? I live in Australia, and it's worse here.
This has got to be total bs. I know a lot of british people who play FPSs out the whaaazoo. But god do I hate those accents. although british marines kick butt they suck at wrestling. (I'm in the US Marines and we challenge a couple of them in a bout in Iraq)
[QUOTE]I bet it will change once MS releases the 360 in Europe.[/QUOTE] The 360 out in Europe :P
agreed, why cars? GTA LCS is clearly the better game. It's sold more, has a higher score, and I do believe it's even won game of the month. What's cars got? Nothing! :evil:
Take a look at the first footage of Cars in this trailer.
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