Saling The World: PGR4, Ash Square Off Against Halo 3

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 October 4th, 2007, feature continuing worldwide dominance for Halo 3, as titles like Ash: Archaic Sealed Heat and Project Gotham Racing 4 face an uphill battle in its wake. 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. Carnival Games (Global Star), 2. Wii Play (Nintendo), 3. Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party (Konami), 4. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Nintendo), 5. Mario Party 8 (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Dragon Quest Swords: Kamen no Joou to Kagami no Tou (Square Enix), 2. Dragon Ball Z Sparking! Meteor (Bandai), 3. Wii Sports (Nintendo), 4. Hajimete no Wii (Nintendo), 5. Mario Party 8 (Nintendo). UK: 1. FIFA 08 (EA Games), 2. MySims (EA Games), 3. Super Paper Mario (Nintendo), 4. Big Brain Academy for Wii (Nintendo), 5. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (EA Sports). Carnival Games continues its reign atop the Nintendo Wii chart for the second week in a row in the United States. Even strong contenders like Wii Play and Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party are unable to top it in weekly sales numbers, and future weeks could see similar results. In Japan, a drop in price by 60% results in the three-month-old Dragon Quest Swords: Kamen no Joou to Kagami no Tou reclaiming first place in Wii software sales, as Bandai's just-released Dragon Ball Z Sparking! Meteor finishes its debut week in second. Xbox 360 North America: 1. Halo 3 (Microsoft), 2. Halo 3: Limited Edition (Microsoft), 3. BioShock (2K Games), 4. Halo 3: Legendary Edition (Microsoft), 5. Project Gotham Racing 4 (Microsoft). Japan: 1. Halo 3 (Microsoft), 2. Halo 3: Limited Edition (Microsoft), 3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Spike), 4. Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yume (Namco), 5. Bullet Witch -- Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (AQ Interactive). UK: 1. Halo 3 (Microsoft), 2. FIFA 08 (EA Sports), 3. Halo 3: Limited Edition (Microsoft), 4. Gears of War (Microsoft), 5. BioShock (2K Games). Demand for the Legendary Edition of Halo 3 slacks a bit in the week following its release in the United States and Europe, though both the regular and Limited versions continue to perform just as well as they had in the week prior. Project Gotham Racing 4 debuts to a fifth-place U.S. finish, meanwhile -- an impressive feat, considering the difficulty titles currently face in maintaining Xbox 360 chart placement thanks to the double threat of Halo 3 and Bioshock. PlayStation 3 North America: 1. Heavenly Sword (SCEA), 2. NBA 2K8 (2K Sports), 3. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEA), 4. Warhawk (SCEA), 5. NBA Live 08 (EA Sports). Japan: 1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Spike), 2. Agarest Senki (Compile Heart), 3. Minna no Golf 5 (SCEI), 4. Gundam Musou (Bandai), 5. Blade Storm: Hyakunen Sensou (Koei). UK: 1. FIFA 08 (EA Sports), 2. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEE), 3. MotorStorm (SCEE), 4. Formula One Championship Edition (SCEE), 5. Warhawk (SCEE). The PlayStation 3 version of NBA 2K8 makes a strong sales impression in its first week of release, though the Xbox 360 port comes out on top as this week's best-selling version overall. EA's NBA Live 08 trails behind 2K8 on both platforms. Japanese PS3 owners are still showing great interest in the recently released The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, meanwhile, as gamers in the UK continue to buy FIFA 08 in droves. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. Guitar Hero II Bundle (Activision), 2. Madden NFL 08 (EA Sports), 3. Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix), 4. God of War II (SCEA), 5. NBA Live 08 (EA Sports). Japan: 1. Dragon Ball Z Sparking! Meteor (Bandai), 2. Bakumatsu Koihana: Karyuu Kenshiden -- Limited Edition (D3 Publisher), 3. Clannad (Interchannel), 4. Metal Gear 20th Anniversary: Metal Gear Solid Collection (Konami), 5. Bakumatsu Koihana: Karyuu Kenshiden (D3 Publisher). UK: 1. FIFA 08 (EA Sports), 2. SingStar Rock Ballads (SCEE), 3. SingStar '90s (SCEE), 4. Rugby 08 (EA Sports), 5. SingStar Pop Hits (SCEE). A recent universal price drop to $19.99 provides the driving force behind a resurgence in North American sales for Final Fantasy XII this week. NBA Live 08 also cleans up in PlayStation 2 sales numbers, while the PS2 port of 2K Sports' NBA 2K8 lags far behind. Similar results can be seen in Japan, where Dragon Ball Z Sparking! Meteor fares much better on the PlayStation 2 than it does on the Wii in its first week of release. PC North America: 1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard), 2. World in Conflict (Sierra), 3. Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts (THQ), 4. The Sims 2: Bon Voyage (EA Games), 5. World of Warcraft (Blizzard). Japan: 1. Hatsune Miku (Cripton Future Media), 2. Phantasy Star Universe: Illuminus no Yabou (Sega), 3. Nitro Royale -Heroines Duel- (Nitro+), 4. Little Busters! (KEY), 5. Clannad (Key). UK: 1. World in Conflict (Sierra UK), 2. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (Atari), 3. The Settlers: Rise of an Empire (Ubisoft), 4. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Activision), 5. The Sims 2: Bon Voyage (EA Games). World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is back on top in U.S. PC sales this week after being disrupted in previous weeks by big sellers like World in Conflict and Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. In the UK, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars falls a few places in this week's results, following a first-place debut in the previous week. The Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion pack Mask of the Betrayer rises up to take second place, meanwhile, and is poised to meet with similarly big sales upon its U.S. release next week. Nintendo DS North America: 1. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo), 2. Brain Age 2 (Nintendo), 3. Brain Age (Nintendo), 4. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 5. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Ash: Archaic Sealed Heat (Nintendo), 2. Zaidan Houjin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kyoukai Kounin: KanKen DS 2 + Jouyou Kanji Jiten (Rocket Company), 3. Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Motto Eigo Duke (Nintendo), 4. Chuugaku Eitango Target 1800 DS (IE Institute), 5. TOEIC Test DS Training (IE Institute). UK: 1. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo), 2. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo), 3. Cooking Mama (505 Games), 4. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 5. MySims (EA Games). After consistently leading weekly Nintendo DS sales throughout the month of September, Brain Age 2 falls to second place in the wake of the release of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Phantom Hourglass emerges as the week's second-best selling game across all platforms in the United States, after the regular edition of Halo 3. Elsewhere, Mistwalker's Ash: Archaic Sealed Heat is off to a fast sales start in Japan, where it beats out unusually fierce competition from a pack of educational training applications. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Jeanne D'Arc (SCEA), 2. Star Wars Battlefront II (LucasArts), 3. Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow (SCEA), 4. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 5. Daxter (SCEA). Japan: 1. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix), 2. Gundam Battle Chronicle (Bandai), 3. Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki SC (Nihon Falcom), 4. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus (Konami), 5. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (Capcom). UK: 1. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (Square Enix), 2. FIFA 08 (EA Sports), 3. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 4. Call of Duty 3: Roads to Victory (Activision), 5. Sega Mega Drive Collection (Sega). Though Jeanne D'Arc and Star Wars Battlefront II continue to jockey for the PSP's top sales spot in the United States, neither title will likely finish in first place next week, following the release of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. The War of the Lions has already proven itself to be a hit in Europe, and based upon early presale numbers at Amazon, its U.S. release should meet with similar success.