UK Charts: Potter poaches the top spot

By Paul Loughrey Published 23 November, 2005

Perhaps predictably, the cinematic release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has given EA's videogame tie-in the boost in sales it needed to knock THQ's wrestling title from the top spot of the all formats chart this week.

WWE: Smackdown Vs Raw slips to third place, while LucasArts manages to hold second place for another week with Star Wars: Battlefront II, in spite of a 32 per cent drop in unit sales. Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 5 keeps its lead over rival FIFA 06, climbing one place to four, while FIFA is relegated to fifth position.

Atari's sci-fi movie license, The Matrix: Path of Neo climbs three places from nine to six, resting just above this weeks most successful chart entry for Sony. Thanks to a widespread bundling deal with the release of the PSP Giga Pack, World Tour Soccer enjoyed a phenomenal sales surge, entering the chart at number seven.

EA's console versions of The Sims 2 slip one place from seven to eight, with ninth place secured by a five place climb for Activision's Wild West adventure, Gun. Tenth place goes to Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories on the PSP, which has slipped a disappointing six places since last week.

Despite a strong line-up, new releases failed to set the retail world alight last week - perhaps reflecting the fact that with so many major games hitting the shelves, and so many key titles already on release, sales - and shelf space - are being divided up between a large number of games and it's tough for any new title to dent the top ten.

Activision holds the new release lead this week, with Call of Duty 2: Big Red One entering the charts in twelfth place. Unlucky for some, Codemasters debut at thirteen with the latest sports management sim, LMA Manager 2006, stealing the lead over Ubisoft's official film tie-in, King Kong. The forthcoming cinema release and generally positive reviews of the game should help secure a higher position for the angry ape in the coming weeks.

The Xbox chart has seen a general downward shift, as a high number of new releases, albeit largely multi-format titles, vie for position. Half Life 2 takes the top spot, while SEGA's Shadow the Hedgehog only manages to sneaks in at number 17.

This week's scheduled releases include the latest in EA's street racing franchise, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, True Crime: New York City from Activision, and Mario Kart DS from Nintendo. The safe bet however, would be for a chart topping win for Buena Vista Games with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The epic movie tie-in is already tipped as the bookies favourite for a Christmas number one, with odds of 5/1 from Ladbrokes.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Fairlane #1 6 years ago

    Im not buying anything for my Xbox anymore. Hope alle new xbox games will be running on the sparkeling new 360 ;-)

  • myiagros #2 6 years ago

    what about soul calibur 3?

    why are you not all buying it?

    it is fantastic!!

  • Dizzy #3 6 years ago

    >why are you not all buying it?

    >it is fantastic!!

    Because we already played the same damn game on our DCs years ago dude.

  • smelly #4 6 years ago

    Someone on another thread asked me something like "if the gamecube is so great, why does it sell so badly in this country".

    After seeing the uk charts and what gamers buy in this country, im not suprised in the slightest.

  • smelly #5 6 years ago

    >why are you not all buying it?
    >it is fantastic!!

    They released it on the wrong platform.. if they'd done any market research they'd have seen that SC2 was best selling on the cube, they shouldve released it on that, instead of on hardware which is showing its age.

  • tengu #6 6 years ago

    Still the most popular platform smelly.

  • myiagros #7 6 years ago

    what ever platform its on and whether or not you enjoyed it on the DC years ago. I will stick my neck on the line and say the core mechanics of this one are the best yet.

    The main downside is the loss of Weapon master mode.

    as for placing it on the wrong platform, i do believe that SCII sold best on GC in Europe but worldwide as with most multi-format releases it sold best on PS2.

  • smelly #8 6 years ago

    as for placing it on the wrong platform, i do believe that SCII sold best on GC in Europe but worldwide as with most multi-format releases it sold best on PS2.

    Really? My bad.

    Okay.. then it's obvious then isnt it? In the uk, the only main group of gamers who appreciate good games are cube owners.

    Owners of the other two in europe are more interested in guff like harry potter.

    Maybe worldwide soul calibur 3 will sell better, the japanese have good tastes when it comes to games...

  • Kami #9 6 years ago

    SC3 is a wonderful game, I just think the difficulty level tends to bounce around a tad too much for its own good... shame really, and I still don't think it's as good as SC2 - which wasn't as good as SC1... plenty of good ideas though. Just needed some more heart, soul and passion.

    Mind you, typical that Harry Poter gets to #1... and I'll bet more than half of those were bought by grown-ups for their own usage. Pathetic, really...

  • jmctavish #10 6 years ago

    Harry Potter should have been in Soul Calibur 3.........then we could beat the shit out of the speccy cunt.

  • myiagros #11 6 years ago

    what an idea, i might try making harry potter in the character creation mode of SCIII, then i will use Nightmare to beat him to a pulp!!

  • myiagros #12 6 years ago

    according to chart track Soul Calibur 3 is not even in the top 20 PS2 games for last week.

    What the hell is going on?

    Have you guys and gals all been buying Harry Potter again? (if your even here you should know better)

  • Syrette #13 6 years ago

    according to chart track Soul Calibur 3 is not even in the top 20 PS2 games for last week.

    What the hell is going on?

    i found media interest in the title to be fairly non existant. in fact i was surprised to see the title was already on sale in Gamestation when i went there today.
    Edited by 1 at 23/11/05 @ 22:25

  • Kami #14 6 years ago

    Yeah, SC3 has been a bit on the quiet side... it really isn't as polished as SC2 was. I found that pretty noticable. Though being able to make my own character was fun and there's shedloads of stuff to buy/earn.

    I think the AI is patchy at best in places, and it suffers too much from trying to be everything - the strategy thing is nice, but really unnecessary. The story mode, a nice try but again, it wasn't needed - feels like an attempt to cover up the lack of the training/mission modes from the past two.

    It's certainly pretty though. And a blast with some friends/relatives around. Some great ideas. Just doesn't feel as polished as I've come to expect a Soul Calibur game to be...

  • Markusdragon #15 6 years ago

    SC3's exclusivity will be it's downfall. Less than half of the people who bought SC2 bought it for PS2. Logically, they halved their market getting in bed with sony. Ouch.

    Also, I miss SoulBlade :(
    Edited by 1 at 24/11/05 @ 10:44

  • myiagros #16 6 years ago

    i bought soul blade again on ebay just 3 days ago, arrived this morning, will be playin it over the weekend. Ahh happy memories.

  • jack_klugman #17 6 years ago

    Think I might go ebay myself a copy and all

  • JonFE #18 6 years ago

    "it really isn't as polished as SC2 was. I found that pretty noticable."

    But I thought that the reason behind PS2 exclusivity was to concetrate on one platform and make it the best that platform could do - yet it's not as polished as the multi-platform SC2 ???

  • dspartan2000 #19 6 years ago

    It seems the nintendogs bundle is really doing great sales for the DS. Pity it's not counted as part of the charts since its a bundle: New press release

    More than 1 million copies of Nintendogs sold in Europe

    Ellie Gibson 16:30 25/11/2005

    DS sales continue to exceed 100,000 units per week in PAL territories

    Nintendo has announced that more than 1 million copies of puppy sim Nintendogs have been sold across Europe since the game launched on October 7th.

    The Nintendo DS also continues to sell well, with more than 2 million units already shifted. According to Nintendo, weekly sales have topped 100,000 for the past three weeks - with 120,000 units sold last week alone.

    The handheld's success is likely to continue with the release of Mario Kart DS, which hit European stores today. It's the first game that allows DS owners to play online via Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service. A Mario Kart DS bundle - which includes a handheld and a copy of the game - is currently retailing for GBP 99.

    The announcement follows the earlier publication of Nintendo's half-yearly financial report, which revealed a fall in profits of 21.1 per cent. Nintendo attributed the drop to extra research and development costs and lower sales of GameCube consoles and software.

    The company is predicting a further boost in sales of DS hardware and games as Christmas draws nearer, with titles such as Nintendogs and Mario Kart DS expected to sell well throughout the holiday period.

    Source:Gamesindustry.biz

  • Kami #20 6 years ago

    JonFE - SC2 was graphically sound and technically brilliant. It was hard to find fault with any version of SCII, such was the level of briilliance that each title held.

    SC3 isn't. Technically it's a bit wobbly and graphically, it glitches far too often for it's own good. Not to say SC3 doesn't have it's charm - the single player modes do add SOME spice to the mix, and it's still a blast with some mates. It's just not the game it used to be... personally, I say they rushed it. But others may have different opinions on that...