UK Charts: MOH keeps up Assault on top spot
Great week for THQ too...
Electronic Arts held on to the top of the UK charts this week with Medal of Honor: European Assault, but THQ took the next two places in the ranking with Destroy All Humans and Juiced.
European Assault's hold on the number one spot was weakened somewhat, with sales down some 31 per cent over the previous week - while its stablemate, PC-exclusive title Battlefield 2, dropped four places to number six.
Destroy All Humans had a great second week, however, jumping from number four to number two, while Juiced held steady at number three - with both new franchises seemingly justifying THQ's confidence in releasing them during a traditionally quiet period for big new releases.
The highest-ranked new release for the week was another EA title, with Cricket 2005 debuting at number five, a stronger performance than any of EA's previous titles in the cricket genre.
Further down the chart, the new releases are somewhat sparse; Activision's movie tie-in Madagascar debuts at number 12, but will inevitably climb the ranking once the Dreamworks movie appears in cinemas, while Sony's Formula 1 2005 comes in at number 17.
Ghostlight's Ubisoft-distributed PS2 RPG title Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call is the only notable absence from the charts this week, while the arrival of DS versions of both GoldenEye: Rogue Agent and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory help to push them both up the chart - with Rogue Agent back in at 35, and Chaos Theory up three places to 16.
This week will be a bit busier at retail in the UK, with Sony's PS2-exclusive God Of War rolling out here on a wave of positive reviews and strong word of mouth from its US release - although an exceptionally poor marketing effort from SCEE could leave sales a bit weaker than they should be for what's being described as one of the best titles in the PS2 catalogue.
Ubisoft also drops Bomberman DS on retail this Friday, along with Microsoft's Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack - which seems unlikely to be a huge seller, given the availability of the content online.