UK Chart Analysis 03 – PlayStation 3’s Big Two Still Holding On

UK Chart Analysis 03 – PlayStation 3’s Big Two Still Holding On

Posted: 04-24-2007, 06:08 PM

We took a break from the analysis of the UK chart to step back and watch what was going on over here a little more closely and it certainly has given us a lot of perspective, as well as much to talk about. To start with, we have seen the PlayStation 3 storm out of the starting blocks with a record being broken for the fastest selling home console ever in the UK, amounting to 165,000 sales in the opening weekend. This then dropped to around 29,700 the next week, a drop of around 82%, which was still considerably healthy, although its two main games (Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm) both fell by over 60% as well. The third week saw yet another drop, this time with data leaked from an unknown source, thought by many to be Nintendo in an attempt to show off its victory during the Easter period. That week saw the PlayStation 3 at 17,000 units – in comparison to the Wii’s 25,000 and Xbox 360’s 11,000. By this point, the likes of WH Smith were dropping the next generation hardware’s price to £399.99 as part of an Easter special in the hope of re-invigorating sales, but it seems that (for the moment at least) people are not quite as interested as Sony would have thought.

Talking of Sony, its UK PR team has been contacted by several sources and failed to get back to them with some sort of official statement or even any damage control. Saying that, though, the team may feel there is definitely no need to panic (despite the recent revelation of job cuts amongst the European arm of the gaming division being imminent) as the race is hardly over that quickly. This generation is just getting warmed up and with features like Home to look forward to, things could very well be turned on their heads in no time.

Just to clarify something here, the UK chart is made up of three Top 40 All Format listings; the All Prices, Budget and Full Price charts. The first includes ALL games, including budget ones (anything priced £19.99 or lower), the second caters for all of those budget games alone, whilst the last chart is simply for those titles priced above £19.99. For sake of sanity, we at PS3 Chat choose to focus on the Full Price chart only, which is definitely a blessing since the All Prices one this time is flooded with ultra cheap PC re-releases!

After being kept down by Command & Conquer 3 (now No.4) for the PC last week, the strength of the movie has propelled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles up a place to grab No.1, just managing to keep its nose above this week’s highest new entry – Pokémon Ranger on the Nintendo DS. Moving back up five due to continued promotional work is Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, now residing at No.3, but there is not as much luck for Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 as it loses traction and slides two to No.5. As the action heats up after Manchester United’s total demolition of AC Roma recently, UEFA Champions League 2006 – 2007 is spurred on up one to No.6, helping to knock Guitar Hero II back down two spots to No.5 after being heavily boosted by the arrival of an Xbox 360 version two Fridays ago. Sega’s Virtua Tennis 3 is now available on four formats – PlayStation 3 amongst them – but cannot hold on, dropping two to No.8, along with another slider at No.9, Medal of Honour: Vanguard (Wii and PlayStation 2), down five.

This brings us nicely to the week’s highest placed PlayStation 3 game – MotorStorm, which despite all the negativity in the Media and reported slumps in hardware sales (roughly estimated to be around 10,000 – 11,000 per week at the moment) holds steady at No.12. What makes this even more impressive is how it stays a step ahead of the steam train that is New Super Mario Bros. on DS, rising back up three to No.13. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game Crackdown is showing good longevity, climbing one to No.14, but sadly Resistance: Fall of Man on PlayStation 3 suffers considerably, slipping five to land at No.15. As with the UEFA game higher up the chart, Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 6 shifts up a gear as we reach the final stretch of the Premiership in the UK, helping the game up six to No.16, with FIFA 07 remaining at No.18.

Next up we can see another Xbox 360 game is resurgent at No.19, up six places is Gears of War, but Call of Duty cannot keep going, moving backwards from No.13 to No.20. Wii sees The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess jump back up five to No.23, Disney Interactive’s Nintendo DS exclusive “Spectrobes” trickles down four to No.25 and Sonic and the Secret Rings on Wii plummets from No.14 to No.26. The multi-format Rayman Raving Rabbids finally loses some of its charm, now down four to No.27, whilst the saccharine sweet Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop 2 somehow works its way up six to No.28, with Fight Night Round 3 down three to No.29, Cricket 07 in at No.33, nintendogs: Labrador & Friends up three at No.34, Harvest Moon DS new at No.35, nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends back in at No.36, Mario Kart DS returning at No.37, Square Enix’s RPG Final Fantasy XII falling eight to No.38, WarioWare: Smooth Moves on Wii up one to No.39 and, finishing it all off, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which returns at No.40 (and launches on the PlayStation 3 soon).

As for how the rest of the PlayStation 3 chart looks, here is how they line up:

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

This means we can straight away see that Chart Track has decided to chop the PlayStation 3 Chart down to twenty three entries, rather than the twenty four it original started with, meaning that Electronic Arts’ The Godfather: The Don’s Edition has been disgracefully booted from the listings entirely, which is surprising given the success of the game’s original versions, especially the PlayStation 2 game. But anyway, starting from the top and working down, MotorStorm from British outfit Evolution Studios has continued its mighty charge and shoved Insomiac’s Resistance: Fall of Man down, usurping it from the throne and grabbing the coveted No.1 spot. The developer has been quick to boast about its success around the world (yes, even in Japan where it has sold around 20,000 units in all), but it definitely deserves to blow its own horn and word of mouth is helping it keep some momentum in the face of the disastrous performance of certain other ‘key’ release titles. By way of a slip over at Chart Track UK’s headquarters it was revealed (and later quickly removed from the official website) that MotorStorm actually sold 6,899 copies during last week.

Next up we have the highly promoted game from Insomniac, most known probably for its Ratchet & Clank games, Resistance: Fall of Man, down to No.2, but Sony makes it three out of three at the top as Formula 1: Championship Edition pushes past the latest entry in Activision’s ever popular Call of Duty franchise. With interest in EA’s Tiger Woods 07 being roused once more by the hot Wii edition, as a result the PlayStation 3 version is also getting some more attention, with it moving up two to No.7. It is great to see that not far from this there are great platform exclusives Ridge Racer 7 (No.8) and Virtua Fighter 5 (No.9), but it a shame that the likes of Sony’s own Genji 2: Days of Blade (No.16), Ubisoft’s RPG Enchanted Arms (No.23) and the immensely fun NBA Street: Homecourt (No.20) are not riding as high as they should be.

It all seems to be settling down for Sony at the moment here in the UK, with the launch buzz already dying down and the most important time about to hit as consumers decide whether or not it is indeed worth investing in such a beast of a machine or if they should choose a cheaper alternative. The key for Sony then is how it pushes on the marketing side, an angle it has always had the edge with in the past. After all, people always deem the UK to be Sony-land, so there definitely is the loyal market out there…They are simply waiting to be convinced!

Stick around for another UK Chart Analysis in about two weeks time…

Article by Adam Riley

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