ELSPA Releases Top 10 UK Games of 2005

The Entertainment Software and Leisure Publishers Association, the UK trade body equivalent to the USA's Entertainment Software Alliance, has announced the top-selling games of 2005 in the UK. The year saw an overall increase in game sales, with hardware sales rising by 34 percent and software sales up 2.6 percent compared to the 2004 totals. The largest share of the top 10 chart went to Electronic Arts, who published the #1 game in the UK, FIFA 06. In addition to the popular soccer franchise, EA landed Need for Speed: Most Wanted at #3, FIFA Street at #6, and squeaked The Sims 2 in at #10 -- which is actually fairly impressive, given that it was released in 2004. LucasArts also did well for themselves with popular Star Wars tie-in games: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the game version of the movie, came in at #5, and Star Wars Battlefront II ended up just two places below it at #7. The rest of the chart was divided between Konami, with Pro Evolution Soccer 5 at #2; Sony, with Gran Turismo 4 at #4; Rockstar, with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas -- another 2004 release -- at #8; and Ubisoft, with King Kong at #9. "We are now starting to see a trend in the market," said ELSPA director general Roger Bennett, "where software sales continue to rise even during the cycle before the introduction of exciting new technologies, with software publishers fully exploiting the tried and tested current hardware platforms. It is a testament to the strategic marketing initiatives of the entire industry that, despite being a transition year between current and next-generation hardware, our industry has still continued to gain momentum."