April NPD PC Retail Sales Show Strong RTS Presence

Monthly U.S. NPD PC retail sales charts for April are in, with the traditional domination by Blizzard Entertainment and Electronic Arts' Maxis studio accounting for more than half the entries. Strategy games in general did well this month, with Relic Entertainment's expansion pack Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor coming in at number four, just above The Creative Assembly's ambitious Empire: Total War. Relic was also represented with its more recent Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II down at number 14. Gas Powered Games and Stardock's strategy/RPG hybrid Demigod hit number seven for its debut, right below Valve's continual seller Left 4 Dead. The full top 20 is as follows (note that NPD draws only from retail outlets, and does not reflect the increasing influence of digital distribution in the PC market): 1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (Blizzard Entertainment) 2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe (EA Maxis) 3. World Of Warcraft Battle Chest / (Blizzard Entertainment) 4. Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor (Relic Entertainment, THQ) 5. Empire: Total War (The Creative Assembly, Sega) 6. Left 4 Dead (Valve Software) 7. Demigod (Gas Powered Games, Stardock) 8. Diablo Battle Chest (Blizzard Entertainment) 9. The Sims 2: Apartment Life (EA Maxis) 10. Spore (EA Maxis) 11. Warcraft III Battle Chest (Blizzard Entertainment) 12. StarCraft Battle Chest (Blizzard Entertainment) 13. World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard Entertainment) 14. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II (Relic Entertainment) 15. World Of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) 16. The SimCity Box (SimCity Societies, SimCity 4, Sims SnapCity) (EA Maxis) 17. Bejeweled Twist (PopCap Games) 18. Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios) 19. The Sims 2: Pets (EA Maxis) 20. Hidden & Dangerous 2 (Illusion Softworks, Take-Two) Perhaps the most unusual placement on the list goes to Hidden & Dangerous 2, the 2004 World War II squad shooter developed by Mafia creator Illusion Softworks, now known as 2K Czech. The game was widely noted for its excellent design but suffered from a number of glitches and bugs. Nonetheless, an apparent sale at retail apparently led to a minor resurgence in adoption, allowing the game to sneak onto the list at number 20.