GTA IV still top of the UK charts

By Kristan Reed Published 28 May, 2008

Ahead of Age of Conan and Haze.

Grand Theft Auto IV remained at the top of the UK All Formats chart for the fourth straight week, beating off strong challenges from Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Haze, which debuted at two and three respectively.

It was especially good news for Eidos and Funcom, with Age of Conan boasting the biggest PC game launch of the year, and the biggest-ever online-only title launch outside of the mighty World of Warcraft franchise. Ubisoft and Free Radical, meanwhile, will be heartened by the performance of the PS3-exclusive Haze, fresh from its critical mauling last week.

And despite the controversy over its high price point, EA notched up solid first week sales of Harmonix's long-awaited Rock Band, with a first week placing of six higher than many might have expected. According to Chart-Track, a quarter of those purchasing the game also bought the GBP 129.99 instrument control bundle.

But where's Wii Fit, we hear you cry. Nowhere, is the answer, with stock of the title in such short supply that the game crashed spectacularly from two last week, to outside of the Top 40 altogether. Further examination placed the title at 15 in the Wii chart.

Elsewhere, the chart is still awash with stalwarts such as Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (4), PES 2008 (7), Mario Kart Wii (8), FIFA 08 (9), Guitar Hero III (10), as well as a host of family/kid-friendly titles like Brain Training (13), Carnival (16), High School Musical 2 (18), Cooking Mama 2 (21), Ben 10 (22), Game Party (23), More Brain Training (25), Cooking Mama (26), Imagine Babies (27), Top Trumps (28), and Speed Racer (39). I remember when it used to be all fields...

Read 'em and weep, kids.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • spazmo #1 4 years ago

    uh, have you ever looked at the charts before?

  • DutchDemons #2 4 years ago

    so despite everyone saying Haze is crap.....people still go out and actually buy it?

    so we can pretty much assume Haze 2 will be out by next year and it will only be .1% prettier.

    fuck you casual gamer!

  • Wash #3 4 years ago

    Haze :S

    Rock band :) - all i need now is the instrument pack.

  • Darren #4 4 years ago

    I'm really surprised to see Haze at no. 3 in the All-Format Charts as it isn't exactly a great game and attracted a lot of scathing reviews. I guess this just proves that holding back reviews until the game's release date prevents poor sales... or maybe people just ignore them. Granted Haze isn't a bad game as such, having completed it over the bank holiday weekend, it's just so damn ordinary and unexceptional that I'm surprised it even made the Top 20.

  • anomagnus #5 4 years ago

    just goes to show, you dont need to bother making a good game anymore, the casual market will lap it up anyway, after its rave reviews in FHM...

  • GamesConnoisseur #6 4 years ago

    I knew of the critical maulings and still bought Haze as there is still game in there, have to say suprised at how buggy the game is and seemed unfinished. In one instance in a jeep the NPC team mate at back was graphically frozen stiff but his mounted gun has a life of its own and firing guns around on his behalf! There was laughable floating corpses especially the one floating through the side of the cable car.

    I had lots of issues getting NPCs into jeeps, tanks or even where my jeep was stuck in a stupid place and cannot be used!

    The resolution is very PS2 and cant believe how at one time this game was held up as being a potential Halo beater by some. Glad that this is now put at rest but disappointed that obviously Free Radical reputation will be harmed from this effort.

  • bad09 #7 4 years ago

    @ Darren

    I think we've all long known that joe public doesn't read reviews, they go by marketing. Haze has been panned by most but the advertising is still out in force. See a cool poster or a good ad and a lot of us are sold on that alone sadly (and I'm sure we've all been guilty of it at least once!).

    You just to look at some of the rubbish in the charts for proof.

  • Waffleaber #8 4 years ago

    I managed to pick it wii fit from Gamestop in Birmingham on Saturday, it's good and all but the temptation to stick it on ebay for a quick £30-40 profit is pretty strong.

  • Vice.Destroyer #9 4 years ago

    @ Darren
    I'm really surprised to see Haze at no. 3 in the All-Format Charts as it isn't exactly a great game and attracted a lot of scathing reviews...Haze isn't a bad game as such, having completed it over the bank holiday weekend...

    Did you buy it as well?

  • Eighthours #10 4 years ago

    I expect that Haze will drop like a stone next week. Already there are reports of some stores refusing to take any more returned copies!

  • Darren #11 4 years ago

    @bad09 - Yeah I know I shouldn't be surprised but given the extreme negativity toward Haze prior to its release and those unimpressive reviews I was convinced the game was going to be a massive flop. Of course, it may still be: next week it could drop completely out of the Top 40 as word of mouth spreads. The bulk of the first week's sales will no doubt consist of pre-orders which many people, myself included, placed months ago. Second week sales are likely to be a lot worst.

    @Vice.Destroyer - Yes, I was one of those people that pre-ordered Haze middle of last year when it looked promising... ;)

  • thiswaynow #12 4 years ago

    I wonder how much money Nintendo are losing because people want WiiFit but can't fine it anywhere. Maybe the stock shortages last week are because all the available stock was pushed to the US launch.

    Nintendo are taking a bit of a gamble that people will still want WiiFit in months to come, when they can walk into a shop and actually find it on the shelves. Ok, maybe that's a pretty safe bet, but you have to wonder about their inability to ever produce enough stock of the most popular hardware/software. I still can't find Mario Kart Wii, even.

  • penhalion #13 4 years ago

    Actually I don't think anyone would be bothered about this chart if the actual sales figures were attached. The numbers aren't very high for any of the top 10 titles it's just that in a slow sales month we seem to have a few floaters in the water.

    By the way did I mention how pointless the charts are without sales figures?

    For an example of how misleading the charts can be, just look at the Japanese charts. They contain cold hard sales data, showing that in a slow month it doesn't take many sales to hit the top 10 or even the top 5!

  • miiiguel #14 4 years ago

    Guess FPS is the way to go, nevermind if it's on the "FPS box" or not, it sells.

  • paulf #15 4 years ago

    @penhalion fair point about needed the numbers to make sense of it all, but didnt conan get over 110,000 preorders? is that slow? (im not critising your point - I'm just curious what a good selling week is
    Edited by 1 at 28/05/08 @ 10:49

  • ps3owner #16 4 years ago

    maybe it's due to the PS3 bundle's ? Seen one that includes GTAIV and Haze + a console and controller

  • muscleblade #17 4 years ago

    "so despite everyone saying Haze is crap.....people still go out and actually buy it? "

    Thats the reason crappy low budget games are in the majority on all the console formats.
    Edited by 1 at 28/05/08 @ 10:52

  • DFawkes #18 4 years ago

    I didn't think Haze was that bad. I'll certainly buy it well before I bother with GTAIV, although I'm not buying any new games for a while so I can catch up with MGS3 in time for MGS4.

  • DrDamn #19 4 years ago

    Haze does provide some good comedy moments. My best one was the cut scene which a missed mantel soldier from the last section of the game joined in. We all stood around saying really bad lines from the script while the soldier stood in the background peppering us with bullets - everyone's a critic :D.

  • Physically_Insane #20 4 years ago

    I'm angry now. Stupid people buying rock band. Thanks a lot, now Europe will always get raped.

  • lovely2cu #21 4 years ago

    Wow GTA IV is a monster. Doesn't everybody have it already?

  • GamerG #22 4 years ago

    I wonder if after reading the FHM type Haze "reviews" and expecting a good game, Casual PS3 owners may feel a bit burnt by Haze and become disillusioned with gaming and specifically their PS3s. It may make them step into the brave world of the 360 where they have been hearing where all the best games are.

  • Pedrolot #23 4 years ago

    @ GamerG

    Fanboy Obviously?

  • septimus #24 4 years ago

    Surprised Haze is that high. But still, I'm going to get it when Game heavily discount it (or where ever) just so I can go through it on co-op.

    Only reason I went through Halo 3's story (if you can call it that) is to play co-op. But overall Halo 3 sucked ass single player wise, co-op saved it for me. So maybe the 4 player co-op has saved Haze for a lot of gamers with more money than sense.

  • paulf #25 4 years ago

    @ Physically_Insane these positions are for the game of rock band not the instruments - the game is a similar price to a solus version of guitar hero, its only the instruments that are expensive (and only 25% of people who bought the game got the instruments too)

    @septimus play haze and you might appreciate halo3 a little more ;)

  • ronuds #26 4 years ago

    LOL! No matter what the situation, whenever the topic of FPS comes up, there's always someone who has to trash Halo 3, simply because it sold a billion copies and is well liked by many.

    Funny how there are still hundreds of thousands of people playing it per night even though it's such a horrible game and months old.

  • StrayBezza #27 4 years ago

    I think Haze and its critical savaging at the hands of the media provides interesting food for thought. I consider myself a pretty hard to please gamer, I am usually a bit of a graphics whore as well. I also own all 3 of this gens consoles and love them all for varying reasons.
    Despite the mauling of Haze I picked it up cheap (traded some completed PS3 games) and, you know what, Its actually a lot fun!!
    Yes, it has glitches etc (which as has been pointed out can provide comedy moments) and indeed the script and story is laughable -

    I think this is kind of my point - in the midst of these console wars and massive expectation for graphical prowess - coupled with gaming suddenly becoming a massive (ultimately money making) industry are we losing sight of games just being fun??

    I am aware that Haze may be a bad case in point and 100% it should have been better.

    However - look at other reviews and compare - some scores just don't stand up against the raping that Haze actually got.

    Rainbow Six Vegas 2 - really any worse graphically??
    Halo 3 - massively generic storyline
    GTA - no real step forward in terms of innovation etc...

    Granted all the above are great games but they are great because they are ultimately fun...

    I dunno - just popped into my head after reading some of the comments field....

    Its all personal preference at the end of the day but I have had an absolute blast with Haze online as I have since launch with Rainbow Six, Resistance etc etc...

    Alot of people will buy and enjoy Haze for what it is....a bloody good laugh (sub standard product aside lol)...

    Peace out.