UK Chart Analysis - PlayStation 3 Annihilates the Competition

UK Chart Analysis - PlayStation 3 Annihilates the Competition

Posted: 03-27-2007, 07:01 PM

The PlayStation 3 has finally hit the streets in the tough market that is the UK and following the recent tracking of its performance in Japan and North America since launching in November of last year here on PS3 Chat it is now time to see just how well the British market has taken to the system.

Early reports had the UK receiving around 300,000 for the launch window and 220,000 for the actual first day it hit the streets, yet reports that filtered in from various sources were sounding quite depressing for Sony on Friday, 23rd March, with the biggest lines and activity appearing at the large London branch of launch partner Virgin Megastore where forty two inch flat screen TVs were being given away to the lucky lot at the front of the queue, eagerly awaiting their new piece of gaming kit. But due to the large amount of systems available, the first day was not exactly indicative of the system’s performance over the whole of the weekend.

The first official report to arrive on Monday came from UK Industry magazine MCV, which led with the headline of ‘Record Breaking 165,000 PlayStation 3s sold at UK Launch’. Sadly, though, this was a rather misleading title as it continues to state how the PlayStation 3 may have beaten the first weekend showing of Nintendo’s Wii, but failed to overcome the 185,000 that the PlayStation Portable sold in early September 2005. In fact, according to Chart Track, the system’s games sold to hardware units moved ratio currently stands at 1.65, whilst the PlayStation 2 had a 1.67 ratio back when it was released.

But this is definitely not a doom and gloom article at all; it is all about how Sony has well and truly blitzed the UK chart on the opening weekend of its new console launch. Weighing in with only the 60GB version available, priced at £424.99, around three quarters of the initial stock was sold, equating to approximately 165,000 units in total. This places it second only to the PlayStation Portable, which managed to sell through an amazing 185,000 units back in September 2005 (six months after the original Nintendo DS came to the UK). However, whilst the PlayStation 3 is only second overall now, it does sit pretty as the fastest selling home console ever in the UK, bumping the previous holder down a peg. For reference, Nintendo’s Wii sold through 105,000 pieces of hardware when launched on 8th December, 2007 and the Xbox 360 sold a ball park figure of 70,000 the year before that, in December 2005.

According to early talk from Sony’s UK Public Relations team, this figure is all part of Sony’s current retail strategy – keep the system in supply at all times to prevent consumers from walking away disappointed. This weekend it seems nobody was disappointed in the slightest, with gamers able to choose from a massive line up of twenty two games ranging from seven different publishers (in comparison the PlayStation Portable had twenty four games on day one from eleven various companies) and, as a result of the varied choice on offer, almost three times as much software was sold as when the PlayStation 2 was released.

All evidence lately has been pointing towards the market waiting for the PlayStation 3 as its predecessor has gradually been slowing down. For example, Okami claimed the top slot on the PlayStation 2 Top 20 chart back in the week ending 10th February, 2007 and yet could only reach twelfth on the Full Price Top 40 listing. On top of this, despite Final Fantasy XII storming home to top both the PlayStation 2 and All Price Top 40 charts in recent weeks, it sold more than fifty percent more than anything else in its own format Top 20 in its first week and even in its third week, when sales had dropped by about half, it still remained top of the PlayStation 2 chart by a large margin. As for the Xbox 360, although it has indeed been gaining more of a foot hold as of late, with titles such as Lost Planet and Gears of War having tremendous success, nothing has really been able to get the traction on the chart you would expect from a next generation console game. Games have been having a tendency of hitting hard and high, but then rapidly fading away. The question remains then whether Sony has the answer in the form of the PlayStation 3. The UK market certainly does appear to be enthralled by the Wii and Nintendo DS, with both systems’ games featuring high up in the chart on a regular basis, but the Sony faithful are still there and looking to spend their money on ‘top quality products’.

So what placed where? Did Sony manage to do what Nintendo could not when the Wii launched and claim the coveted number one spot of the UK Top 40? The answer is definitely yes, as Resistance: Fall of Man leads the assault and slams in at No.1 to topple last week’s champion, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (now at No.6) and becomes Sony’s first No.1 since 2006’s Shadow of the Colossus by the ICO team. One of Sony’s other game MotorStorm, this time by Cheshire developer Evolution Studios, is not far behind, though, entering at No.2, whilst there is a total of six PlayStation 3 games featured in the Top 10 – with Virtua Tennis 3 in at No.4 (helped on by the release of the Xbox 360 version as well), Call of Duty 3 scooting back up fifteen places to No.5, Formula 1: Championship Edition in at No.7 and Tiger Woods at No.9 (although actually sliding four after the new Wii edition boosted it so high last week). The Top 10 is rounded off by the Xbox 360’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, dropping eight to No.10.

For reference, the other games in the Top 20 that were not on PlayStation3 were the new entries for Codemasters’ ‘Brian Lara International Cricket 2007’ at No.3 and THQ’s PC game ‘S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl’, which sneaks in at No8. Eslewhere in the Top 40 there were a total of thirteen new PlayStation 3 games, five of which are exclusive to Sony’s new platform. Back when the PlayStation Portable launched, Ridge Racers shot to the top of its own chart, as well as the UK Top 40, yet Bandai Namco’s Ridge Racer 7 (published by Sony in the UK) on the PlayStation 3 struggles against its stronger competitors this time round, only slipping in as a new entry at No.11. Electronic Arts’ new title Def Jam: Icon is in at No.12, although the Xbox 360 version claimed sixty three percent, leaving the PlayStation 3 version in the dust. Sega starts off strong with Virtua Fighter 5 landing at No.14 on the Top 40 and Sonic the Hedgehog claiming its highest ever position since being released on the Xbox 360, moving back into the chart at No.24 (at the expense of Sonic and the Secret Rings’ sales on Wii, with that version plummeting from the very strong No.4 position last week to No.32). Fight Night Round 3 is resurrected thanks to its PlayStation 3 iteration lifting it from No.30 to No.13, Genji: Days of the Blade is new at No.16, Need for Speed: Carbon drives back up four to No.17 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance returns to the chart at No.40.

For those interested in the other games featured in this week’s list – UEFA Champions League 2006 – 2007 can only muster up a No.15 new entry on various formats, Final Fantasy XII on the PlayStation 2 (still No.1 on its respective format Top 20, by the way) drops fifteen to No.18, the multi format release of movie tie in TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles enters at No.19, Crackdown on the Xbox 360 tumbles fourteen to No.20, Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training on the Nintendo DS falls to its lowest ever position, dropping twelve places to No.22, New Super Mario Bros. also reaches new lows as it slips from No.15 to No.27 and the game people are purely buying for the ‘free’ controller, Wii Play, loses its legs and moves down from No.16 to No.31 in a week totally dominated by Sony and its PlayStation 3, which has barged past everything in its way to be victorious on its first ever week in the UK.

To round this article off, here is the full Top 22 PlayStation 3 chart listing (subject to Chart-Track copyright):

1.) Resistance: Fall of Man (Sony)
2.) MotorStorm (Sony)
3.) Formula 1: Championship Edition (Sony)
4.) Call of Duty 3 (Activision)
5.) Ridge Racer 7 (Bandai Namco)
6.) Virtua Tennis 3 (Sega)
7.) Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega)
8.) Genji: Days of the Blade (Sony)
9.) Fight Night Round 3 (Electronic Arts)
10.) Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega)
11.) Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Electronic Arts)
12.) Def Jam: Icon (Electronic Arts)
13.) Need for Speed: Carbon (Electronic Arts)
14.) Marvel Ultimate Alliance (Activision)
15.) Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (Activision)
16.) Full Auto 2: Battlelines (Sega)
17.) NBA Street Homecourt (Electronic Arts)
18.) Blazing Angels: Squadrons of Word War II (Ubisoft)
19.) World Snooker Championship 2007 (Sega)
20.) Enchanted Arms (Ubisoft)
21.) Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight (Bandai Namco)
22.) NHL 2K7 (Take 2 Interactive)

Not only has Sony claimed the fastest selling home console with the most expensive price tag to date, but it has also beaten out Microsoft and Nintendo in the publishing stakes as the top three games in its format specific chart claim the top three spots! This is in contrast to the launch of the Xbox 360 and Wii, where both Microsoft and Nintendo only had two self published games top their launch week charts.

With such a strong début it seems that Sony can only go down again after the launch period settles down, but the test will be how things pan out over the next few months. Can Sony keep this hype train going and ensure at least a good chunk of the launch games linger in the Top 40 or will the competition from Nintendo and Microsoft slowly edge the PlayStation 3 back out of the charts?

If you want answers, you know where to come. Join us next week for another UK Chart Analysis article…

Article by Adam Riley


ScootaKuH Banned Posts: 1,825 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: England PSN ID: ScootaKuH	03-27-2007, 10:10 PM Good start. Things will obviously slow down though but that is to be expected. Definitely good since all the critics were expecting it to bomb. Good to see Resistance and Motorstorm in there


JasonSmithy PS3Chat Members Posts: 3,435 Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: In a house	03-27-2007, 10:26 PM i can't believe people got free tvs >=[ that's so unfair! just because yew stay out for one thing all night....urghhh but glad to see sony are doing pretty well on first day, sad the same thing can't be said for my local gamestation (biggest in europe =O ) both windows full of PS3 boxed and massive letters in the window saying ''PS3 for sale, ready to pick up today £425'' summit like that anyway........

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