NCAA Football 08 Scores on Xbox 360 and PS3 in U.S.

Gamasutra's weekly column, "Saling The World", covers the top five sellers for every available platform in the United States, Japan, and Europe, providing an important update of sales patterns worldwide. This week's charts, with data taken from July 19th, 2007, feature a multiplatform sales rush for NCAA Football 08 in the United States and a warm reception for two new entries in Konami's Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu series in Japan. Data for "Saling The World" comes courtesy of the public sales information on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.co.jp, with sales split out for each platform and territory, and pre-orders disregarded. This results in a true sense of what games are selling worldwide on the real-time updated service, as follows: Nintendo Wii North America: 1. Wii Play (Nintendo), 2. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (Capcom), 3. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), 4. Super Paper Mario (Nintendo), 5. Mario Party 8 (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Dragon Quest Swords: Kamen no Joou to Kagami no Tou (Square Enix), 2. Wii Sports (Nintendo), 3. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Wii (Konami), 4. Hajimete no Wii (Nintendo), 5. Momotarou Dentetsu 16 (Hudson). UK: 1. Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Nintendo), 2. Wii Play (Nintendo), 3. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (Capcom), 4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (EA Games), 5. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo). Mario Party 8 sees a slight drop in sales in the United States this week thanks to a supply shortage at Amazon, while the title has disappeared completely from the UK chart in the aftermath of a recent recall of all copies in the region. Dragon Quest Swords, meanwhile, remains at the top of Japan's chart, though it faces tough competition from recent releases like Momotarou Dentetsu 16 and Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Wii. Xbox 360 North America: 1. NCAA Football 08 (EA Sports), 2. Gears of War (Microsoft), 3. Guitar Hero II Bundle (RedOctane), 4. The Darkness (2K Games), 5. Overlord (Codemasters). Japan: 1. Dead Rising -- Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (Capcom), 2. The IdolM@ster (Namco), 3. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Ubisoft), 4. Saints Row (THQ Japan), 5. Final Fantasy XI All-in-One Pack 2006 (Square Enix). UK: 1. The Darkness (2K Games), 2. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft), 3. Colin McRae: DiRT (Codemasters), 4. Gears of War (Microsoft), 5. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Ubisoft). NCAA Football 08 bursts onto the scene in its debut week as the single best-selling game across all consoles in the United States, besting longtime cross-platform sales leaders like Wii Play and Pokemon Diamond by a decent margin. Japan, on the other hand, sees a noticeable shift in its weekly sales. Last week's leader Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 falls to third place, while the hit RPG Trusty Bell has disappeared from the weekly top five for the first time since its release. PlayStation 3 North America: 1. NCAA Football 08 (EA Sports), 2. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEA), 3. Ninja Gaiden Sigma (Tecmo), 4. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft), 5. The Darkness (2K Games). Japan: 1. Boku no Natsuyasumi 3 (SCEI), 2. FolksSoul: Ushinawareta Denshou (SCEI), 3. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft), 4. Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (D3 Publisher), 5. Call of Duty 3 (Spike). UK: 1. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEE), 2. MotorStorm (SCEE), 3. Formula One Championship Edition (SCEE), 4. Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega), 5. The Darkness (2K Games). NCAA Football 08 is off to a strong sales start on the PlayStation 3 as well, though Amazon reports that the Xbox 360 version is by far the more popular of the two. This week also sees the launch title Resistance: Fall of Man outpace the sales of Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the first time since the latter title's release. Resistance's new sales life could be due to the PlayStation 3's recent drop in price, as new PS3 owners appear eager to catch up on the console's more popular titles when purchasing the discounted hardware. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. Guitar Hero II Bundle (RedOctane), 2. NCAA Football 08 (EA Sports), 3. God of War (SCEA), 4. God of War II (SCEA), 5. Guitar Hero (RedOctane). Japan: 1. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 14 (Konami), 2. Ultraman Fighting Evolution 3 -- Banpresto Best (Banpresto), 3. Sengoku Basara Double Pack (Capcom), 4. Shounen Onyouji: Tsubasa Yoima, Ten e Kare DX Pack (Kadokawa Shoten), 5. Super Robot Taisen Original Generations (Banpresto). UK: 1. Tomb Raider: Anniversary (Eidos), 2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (EA Games), 3. Shrek the Third (Activision), 4. Transformers: The Game (Activision), 5. Formula One 06 -- Platinum (SCEE). Konami's arcade-style baseball title Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 14 takes top honors in this week's PlayStation 2 results in Japan, beating out the Wii version by a significant lead in sales. Other recent releases dominate the Japanese PS2 chart this week as well, with Capcom's Sengoku Basara Double Pack and a rerelease of Ultraman Fighting Evolution 3 pulling in big sales numbers. In the West, demand for the PlayStation 2 port of NCAA Football 08 is surprisingly high considering the availability and popularity of its next-gen counterparts, indicating that the PS2 hardware still possesses significant sales life. PC North America: 1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard), 2. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 3. PeaceMaker (ImpactGames), 4. Starcraft Battle Chest (Blizzard), 5. Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Microsoft). Japan: 1. Monster Hunter Frontier (Capcom), 2. Shinkyouku Soukai Polyphonica 3 & 4 (Ocelot), 3. Sim People: Expansion Collection 3 (EA Games), 4. Shinkyouku Soukai Polyphonica Memories White -- First Emotion (Ocelot), 5. Shinkyouku Soukai Polyphonica -- 1 & 2 Box Edition (Ocelot). UK: 1. Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword (2K Games), 2. Football Manager 2007 (Sega), 3. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 4. The Sims 2: H&M Stuff (EA Games), 5. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard). Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek drops out of the United States' weekly PC bestseller chart for the first time since its release, though it's likely to reappear in future weeks. Meanwhile, the ImpactGames-developed RTS PeaceMaker manages a strong showing seemingly out of nowhere, as Amazon reports short supply yet a suddenly high level of demand for the title, despite it never having seen a place in the weekly top five since its initial release in May. The Starcraft Battle Chest also sees a resurgence in sales this week, following another recent price drop at Amazon. Nintendo DS North America: 1. Pokemon Diamond (Nintendo), 2. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 3. Brain Age (Nintendo), 4. Pokemon Pearl (Nintendo), 5. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Zelda no Densetsu: Mugen no Sunadokei (Nintendo), 2. Tantei Jinguuji Saburou DS: Inishie no Kioku (Arc System Works), 3. Ganbaru Watashi no Kakei Diary (Nintendo), 4. Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Motto Eigo Duke (Nintendo), 5. TOEIC Test DS Training (IE Institute). UK: 1. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo), 2. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo), 3. Cooking Mama (505 Games), 4. Big Brain Academy (Nintendo), 5. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo). Preorders for the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass outpace the sales of all currently available Nintendo DS titles in the United States this week, with demand for the title likely to result in multi-week chart domination following its release in October. Phantom Hourglass also continues to perform extremely well in Japan, and comes out on top as the week's single biggest-selling title across all platforms. This kind of sales endurance is lost on Dokidoki Majo Shinpan!, which falls out of the DS top five only two weeks after its chart-topping debut. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Lumines (Ubisoft), 2. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 3. Transformers: The Game (Activision), 4. Star Wars Battlefront II (LucasArts), 5. Tales Of The World: Radiant Mythology (Namco Bandai). Japan: 1. Lumines -- PSP the Best (Bandai), 2. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (Capcom), 3. Final Fantasy Tactics: Shishi Sensou (Square Enix), 4. Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki FC (Nihon Falcom), 5. Boku no Natsuyasumi Portable -- PSP the Best (SCEI). UK: 1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 2. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 3. Virtua Tennis 3 (Sega), 4. Lumines -- Platinum (Ubisoft), 5. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (EA Sports). Tales Of The World: Radiant Mythology debuts to fast sales in the United States, beating out RPG rival Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition on the charts in its first week of release. Transformers: The Game sees a surprising third-place finish, though Lumines remains in the highest demand, continuing the trend it began in late June when it was discovered the game could be use to downgrade firmware in later model PSPs to run homebrew titles. The Japanese version of Lumines, meanwhile, is currently commanding a markup price of 24,800 yen at Amazon.co.jp, though it's unknown if this price point has any takers among Amazon's users.