Saling The World: Gears Of War For The Win?

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 February 8th, 2007, show continued Gears Of War popularity for Xbox 360 in multiple territories, and a sudden shakeup in the PS3 charts following a strong debut for Virtua Fighter 5 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. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), 2. WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Nintendo), 3. Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft), 4. Excite Truck (Nintendo), 5. Madden NFL 07 (EA Sports). Japan: 1. Wii Sports (Nintendo), 2. Hajimete no Wii (Nintendo), 3. Zelda no Densetsu: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), 4. Excite Truck (Nintendo), 5. Odoru Made in Wario (Nintendo). UK: 1. Wii Play (Nintendo), 2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), 3. WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Nintendo), 4. Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft), 5. Red Steel (Ubisoft). This week's Wii charts are remarkable only because they mirror last week's results almost exactly. A few titles have switched places on the lower ends of the U.S. and UK lists, but otherwise, this week's best-selling Wii games are all proven hits, and all are very likely to populate the charts in the future as well. Any major changes will only come with the introduction of regular weekly release lineups, and at this early stage in the Wii's life, this might not happen anytime in the near future. Xbox 360 North America: 1. Gears of War (Microsoft), 2. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom), 3. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft), 4. Call of Duty 3 (Activision), 5. Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 (Konami). Japan: 1. Gears of War (Microsoft), 2. The Idolm@ster (Namco), 3. Atsumare! Pinata (Microsoft), 4. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom), 5. Final Fantasy XI All-in-One Pack 2006 (Square Enix). UK: 1. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom), 2. Gears of War (Microsoft), 3. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft), 4. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2K Games), 5. Fight Night Round 3 (EA Sports). Gears of War's popularity in Japan is not to be underestimated; to topple the likes of previous first-place sellers like The Idolm@ster and Atsumare! Pinata in weekly sales is an impressive achievement indeed. Whether the title will continue to move big numbers in the coming weeks is unknown, but for the time being, Gears of War has firmly established itself as one of Japan's most-wanted Xbox 360 releases thus far. PlayStation 3 North America: 1. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEA), 2. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega), 3. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Activision), 4. NBA 2K7 (2K Sports), 5. Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (Ubisoft). Japan: 1. Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega), 2. Resistance: Jinrui Botsuraku no Hi (SCEI), 3. MotorStorm (SCEI), 4. Ridge Racer 7 (Namco), 5. Armored Core 4 (From Software). Virtua Fighter 5's Japanese debut, as predicted, met with an enthusiastic reception from series fans, and resulted in a boost in PS3 hardware sales for the week. The game also managed to best established hits like Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm in weekly sales numbers in its first week of release. Already Japanese gamers are turning an eye to the future, however, as the upcoming Gundam Musou is currently the most popular PlayStation 3 title at Amazon.co.jp, and Gundam fans are already feverishly anticipating its release next month. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. Guitar Hero II (RedOctane), 2. Madden NFL 07 (EA Sports), 3. God of War (SCEA), 4. Guitar Hero (RedOctane), 5. Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 (Konami). Japan: 1. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Capcom), 2. Shining Force EXA (Sega), 3. Seiken Densetsu 4 (Square Enix), 4. OutRun2 SP (Sega), 5. Okami (Capcom). UK: 1. SingStar (SCEE), 2. Little Britain (Mastertronic), 3. FIFA 07 (EA Sports), 4. Sega Mega Drive Collection (Sega), 5. SingStar Legends (SCEE). The controller-bundled version of Guitar Hero II has once again sold out at Amazon, resulting in price spikes from third-party sellers who now charge as much as $100 for the game and controller set. Guitar Hero II will soon face a formidable rival in PS2 software sales, however, as preorders for the upcoming God of War II are quickly ramping up in the weeks leading up to its release. Japan, on the other hand, still can't seem to get enough of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, while the recent OutRun2 SP debuts as another strong seller. PC North America: 1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard), 2. The Sims: Life Stories (EA Games), 3. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 4. The Sims 2 (EA Games), 5. The Sims 2: Pets (EA Games). Japan: 1. Heart no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Wonder World~ (QuinRose), 2. Sukatto Golf Pangya - Marugoto Kit (Frontier Groove), 3. Final Fantasy XI All-in-One Pack 2006 (Square Enix), 4. Arabians Lost: The Engagement on Desert (QuinRose), 5. Football Manager 2007 (Sega). UK: 1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard), 2. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 3. Guild Wars: Nightfall (NC Soft), 4. Football Manager 2007 (Sega), 5. Medieval II: Total War (Sega). World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade sees strong competition from the recently-released The Sims: Life Stories this week. The original World of Warcraft, meanwhile, continues to hold its own against The Sims 2 and its expansions. It should be interesting to see whether the highly anticipated The Sims 2: Seasons expansion pack will manage to top The Burning Crusade in weekly sales upon its release; if preorder popularity is any indication, Seasons has a good chance of dethroning the popular WoW expansion pack. Nintendo DS North America: 1. Brain Age (Nintendo), 2. Diddy Kong Racing DS (Nintendo), 3. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 4. Big Brain Academy (Nintendo), 5. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Picross DS (Nintendo), 2. Wish Room: Tenshi no Kioku (Nintendo), 3. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (Square Enix), 4. Sekaiju no Meikyuu (Atlus), 5. Kanshuu Nippon Joushikiryoku Kentei Kyoukai: Imasara Hito ni wa Kikenai Otona no Joushikiryoku Training DS (Nintendo). UK: 1. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 2. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo), 3. Big Brain Academy (Nintendo), 4. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo), 5. Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo). Brain Age sees increased sales at Amazon this week, thanks in part to a recent promotion that provides a decent discount for many older Nintendo DS titles. Diddy Kong Racing DS also pulls impressive sales numbers in its first week of release, despite a tepid critical reception and disappointing review scores from several outlets. Hotel Dusk: Room 215, meanwhile, falls several places in sales this week, despite dominating the charts as the top seller in DS software in its first few weeks of release. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 2. Sid Meier's Pirates! (2K Games), 3. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (Konami), 4. SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo (SCEA), 5. FIFA 07 (EA Sports). Japan: 1. Maplus: Portable Navi (Edia), 2. Lost Regnum: Makutsu no Koutei (Ertain), 3. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (Konami), 4. Talkman Shiki: Shabe Lingual Eikaiwa (SCEI), 5. Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology (Namco). UK: 1. Sega Mega Drive Collection (Sega), 2. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 3. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 4. Medal of Honor: Heroes (EA Games), 5. Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception). Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories falls off the U.S. PSP chart this week in the wake of an announcement of a soon-to-be-released PS2 port, likely offering an improved experience for a fraction of the cost of the PSP version. Vice City Stories remains a popular choice in the UK, however, as does Sega Mega Drive Collection, which continues to lead PSP sales for the second week in a row.