Saling The World: From Bon Voyage To Airborne, Via Bioshock

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 September 6th, 2007, feature a pair of sales successes for Electronic Arts with The Sims 2: Bon Voyage and Medal of Honor: Airborne, which take a one-two in PC software sales in the United States and the UK. 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. Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft), 2. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Nintendo), 3. Carnival Games (Global Star), 4. Wii Play (Nintendo), 5. Mario Party 8 (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Wii Sports (Nintendo), 2. Mario Party 8 (Nintendo), 3. Forever Blue (Nintendo), 4. Hajimete no Wii (Nintendo), 5. Dragon Quest Swords: Kamen no Joou to Kagami no Tou (Square Enix). UK: 1. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (EA Sports), 2. Wii Play (Nintendo), 3. Boogie (EA Games), 4. Super Paper Mario (Nintendo), 5. Big Brain Academy for Wii (Nintendo). Rayman Raving Rabbids mounts a surprising chart comeback this week after an absence of several months, thanks to a recent drop in price to $29.99. Amazon reports that the price cut has generated a new level of demand that surpasses all other available titles across all platforms in the United States, and supplies are dwindling as a result. Ubisoft's Red Steel has also seen a recent price cut, though any affect this may have had on sales appears to be negligible. Xbox 360 North America: 1. BioShock (2K Games), 2. Madden NFL 08 (EA Sports), 3. Medal of Honor: Airborne (EA Games), 4. Gears of War (Microsoft), 5. Guitar Hero II Bundle (RedOctane). Japan: 1. Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yume (Namco), 2. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Spike), 3. The IdolM@ster (Namco), 4. Hitman: Blood Money (Spike), 5. Chikyuu Boueigun 3 (D3 Publisher). UK: 1. Medal of Honor: Airborne (EA Games), 2. Two Worlds (SouthPeak), 3. BioShock (2K Games), 4. Gears of War (Microsoft), 5. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (EA Sports). The just-released Medal of Honor: Airborne drops in to a third place finish in this week's Xbox 360 software sales results in the United States. Strong performers like Gears of War and Guitar Hero II trail behind during Airborne's first week sales rush, though both titles are expected to regain their former chart positions in future weeks. In more unusual news, Midway's highly anticipated Stranglehold fails to chart in its first week of release. Whether this is a temporary fluke in Amazon's sales results is unknown, though Stranglehold could very well be in the same boat as Microsoft's anticipated yet underperforming Blue Dragon, which remains uncharted in any region. PlayStation 3 North America: 1. Warhawk (SCEA), 2. Lair (SCEA), 3. Madden NFL 08 (EA Sports), 4. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEA), 5. Ninja Gaiden Sigma (Tecmo). Japan: 1. Blade Storm: Hyakunen Sensou (Koei), 2. Minna no Golf 5 (SCEI), 3. Blade Storm: Hyakunen Sensou -- Premium Box (Koei), 4. Gundam Musou (Bandai), 5. Boku no Natsuyasumi 3 (SCEI). UK: 1. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEE), 2. MotorStorm (SCEE), 3. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Ubisoft), 4. Formula One Championship Edition (SCEE), 5. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (EA Sports). Despite a largely negative critical reception, SCEA's Lair ranks high in PS3 software sales in its first week of U.S. release, placing second only to last week's sales champion Warhawk. The upcoming Heavenly Sword is currently picking up preorder numbers that rival the sales of both titles, however, and the title appears likely to top the PS3 charts upon its American release next week. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. Guitar Hero II Bundle (Activision), 2. Madden NFL 08 (EA Sports), 3. Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (Activision), 4. God of War II (SCEA), 5. God of War (SCEA). Japan: 1. A.C.E. Another Century's Episode 3 The Final (Banpresto), 2. Metal Gear 20th Anniversary: Metal Gear Solid Collection (Konami), 3. Dear My Sun!! -- Limited Edition (D3 Publisher), 4. God of War -- Best Price (Capcom), 5. Dear My Sun!! (D3 Publisher). UK: 1. Transformers: The Game (Activision), 2. Guitar Hero II Bundle (Activision), 3. SingStar '90s (SCEE), 4. Rogue Galaxy (SCEE), 5. Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix). A drop in price by $10 provides the impetus for Guitar Hero II's first-place finish in this week's PS2 sales at Amazon. Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s also sees a boost in sales as a result, following a brief chart disappearance last week. Meanwhile, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 suddenly drops out of the U.S. top five, despite consistently strong performance in the weeks prior. A future return to the charts seems likely, though next week's results could tell a different story. PC North America: 1. The Sims 2: Bon Voyage (EA Games), 2. Medal of Honor: Airborne (EA Games), 3. BioShock (2K Games), 4. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 5. Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms (Sega). Japan: 1. Hatsune Miku (Cripton Future Media), 2. Fushigi no Dungeon: Furai no Shiren Gaiden: Onna Kenshi Asuka Kenzan! For Windows -- Best Price Edition (ChunSoft), 3. Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday Armageddon (Cyber Front), 4. Little Busters! -- Limited Edition (Key), 5. Sim People: Expansion Collection 3 (EA Games). UK: 1. The Sims 2: Bon Voyage (EA Games), 2. Medal of Honor: Airborne (EA Games), 3. Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms (Sega), 4. BioShock (2K Games), 5. Medieval II: Total War (Sega). Electronic Arts' The Sims 2: Bon Voyage and Medal of Honor: Airborne continue to drive the PC software sales momentum started last week by the Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms expansion pack, though Kingdoms sees a drop in sales in the United States. The title continues to perform well in Europe, however, while BioShock appears to be slightly more popular with Amazon's U.S. userbase. Nintendo DS North America: 1. Brain Age 2 (Nintendo), 2. Brain Age (Nintendo), 3. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 4. Pokemon Diamond (Nintendo), 5. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (Square Enix), 2. Facening de Hyoujou Yutaka ni Inshou Up: Otona no DS Kao Training (Nintendo), 3. Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Motto Eigo Duke (Nintendo), 4. Ganbaru Watashi no Kakei Diary (Nintendo), 5. Gyakuten Saiban 3 -- Best Price! (Capcom). UK: 1. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo), 2. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo), 3. Pokemon Diamond (Nintendo), 4. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 5. 42 All-Time Classics (Nintendo). The Nintendo DS charts remain virtually unchanged compared to last week's results in all regions. Brain Age and its sequel continue to generate the biggest sales among all available software in the United States and Europe, while a slight sales reshuffling in Japan leaves the budget-priced rerelease of Gyakuten Saiban 3 at fifth place. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (Capcom), 2. Jeanne D'Arc (SCEA), 3. Madden NFL 08 (EA Sports), 4. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 5. Star Wars Battlefront II (LucasArts). Japan: 1. Wild ARMs: Crossfire (SCEI), 2. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (Capcom), 3. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Capcom), 4. Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki FC (Nihon Falcom), 5. Final Fantasy Tactics: Shishi Sensou (Square Enix). UK: 1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 2. Brian Lara 2007 Pressure Play (Codemasters), 3. Worms Open Warfare 2 (THQ), 4. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 5. Sega Mega Drive Collection (Sega). With interest in the PSP on the rise thanks to the impending release of a new hardware revision, recent releases like Monster Hunter Freedom 2, Jeanne D'Arc, and Madden NFL 08 enjoy sales boosted beyond their already successful debut numbers. Japan, on the other hand, finds new interest in Wild ARMs: Crossfire after a price discount at Amazon, while in Europe, Worms Open Warfare 2 arrives to a third place finish in its first week on shelves.