Saling The World: Star Ocean Spurs PSP, Rock Band Shortages Hit

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 December 27th, 2007, showcase a sales rush for recent Japanese debuts Star Ocean 1: First Departure, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku, and Super Robot Taisen OG Gaiden. 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. Wii Play (Nintendo), 2. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo), 3. Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party (Konami), 4. Carnival Games (2K Games), 5. Winter Sports: The Ultimate Challenge (Conspiracy). Japan: 1. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 2. Wii Sports (Nintendo), 3. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo), 4. Jinsei Game (Takara Tomy), 5. Hajimete no Wii (Nintendo). UK: 1. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega), 2. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo), 3. Wii Play (Nintendo), 4. Big Brain Academy for Wii (Nintendo), 5. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (LucasArts). As Amazon's supplies of the holiday's highest-demanded Wii titles slowly replenish, a restocked Wii Play finds itself back on top in North America, with Super Mario Galaxy falling to second place. Amazon reports that new stock of Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party will also arrive soon, and aftermarket prices are expected to cool significantly in the days thereafter. Winter Sports: The Ultimate Challenge makes its chart debut at fifth place this week, meanwhile, likely as a result of the holiday's many new Wii owners searching out budget-priced software. Xbox 360 North America: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft), 3. Halo 3 (Microsoft), 4. Mass Effect (Microsoft), 5. BioShock (2K Games). Japan: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. FIFA 08 World Class Soccer (EA Sports), 3. Lost Odyssey (Microsoft), 4. Gundam Musou International (Bandai), 5. Dead Rising / Gears of War -- Xbox 360 Platinum Double Pack (Capcom / Microsoft). UK: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 3. FIFA 08 (EA Sports), 4. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft), 5. Halo 3 (Microsoft). Though the holidays are over, the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band remains a difficult find, and fails to chart this week due to a lack of available stock at Amazon. Call of Duty 4 and Assassin's Creed take top honors in its stead. Call of Duty 4 in particular sees a banner week in worldwide sales, as a recent successful Japanese debut results in the title finishing in first place in all regions. Fellow debut FIFA 08 World Class Soccer also places high in this week's Japanese results, while Lost Odyssey remains a consistent top seller. PlayStation 3 North America: 1. Time Crisis 4 (Namco Bandai), 2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 3. Rock Band (EA Games), 4. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft), 5. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (SCEA). Japan: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (SCEI), 3. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (Koei), 4. Uncharted: El Dorado no Hihou (SCEI), 5. Time Crisis 4 (Namco). UK: 1. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (SCEE), 2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 3. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft), 4. FIFA 08 (EA Sports), 5. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Konami). Last week's steep discount for Time Crisis 4 continues into this week, and results in the title climbing all the way to the top of the PlayStation 3 software sales chart in North America. Demand for the title has since slacked in Japan, with the just-released Call of Duty 4 claiming a first-place sales finish. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune tops the UK's chart, meanwhile, as rival soccer sims FIFA 08 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 bring up the rear at fourth and fifth place. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. Guitar Hero II Bundle (Activision), 2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Activision), 4. Madden NFL 08 (EA Sports), 5. Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2 (Konami). Japan: 1. Super Robot Taisen OG Gaiden (Bandai), 2. Super Robot Taisen OG Gaiden -- Limited Edition (Bandai), 3. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2008 (Konami), 4. SD Gundam G Generation Spirits (Bandai), 5. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Matsuri: Kakera Asobi (Alchemist). UK: 1. FIFA 08 (EA Sports), 2. The Simpsons Game (EA Games), 3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 4. Rugby 08 (EA Sports), 5. WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008 (THQ). Though supplies were slim during the holidays, the bundled version of Guitar Hero II finds newfound chart success after an Amazon restock. Both bundled and standalone versions of Guitar Hero III remain high in demand as well, as Konami's Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2 continues to weave in and out of the top five from week to week. In Japan, a new release in the long-running Super Robot Taisen strategy RPG series debuts as the week's biggest-selling PS2 title, with its regular and limited editions proving to be almost equally popular. PC North America: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. The Orange Box (EA Games), 3. Crysis (EA Games), 4. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 5. The Sims 2: Bon Voyage (EA Games). Japan: 1. Vocaloid 2 Character Vocal Series 02: Kagamine Rin/Len (Cripton Future Media), 2. RPG Tsukuru VX (Enterbrain), 3. Monster Hunter Frontier Online: Christmas Gentei Package (Capcom), 4. Vocaloid 2 Character Vocal Series 02: Hatsune Miku (Cripton Future Media), 5. Clover no Kuni no Alice: Wonderful Wonder World (QuinRose). UK: 1. Football Manager 2008 (Sega), 2. The Orange Box (EA Games), 3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 4. Crysis (EA Games), 5. The Sims 2: Seasons (EA Games). A brief sale price earlier in the week drives World of Warcraft back into top five territory in the United States, though the week's other charted titles once again come as little surprise. Japan, on the other hand, sees a significant chart restructuring following the release of the vocalist simulation title Vocaloid 2 Character Vocal Series 02: Kagamine Rin/Len, which joins its predecessor, Hatsune Miku, as a top seller among Japanese PC software. This week's other Japanese PC debuts Clover no Kuni no Alice: Wonderful Wonder World and RPG Tsukuru VX also find sales success in the days following their release, and could remain strong contenders for weeks to come. Nintendo DS North America: 1. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 2. Flash Focus (Nintendo), 3. Brain Age 2 (Nintendo), 4. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo), 5. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Final Fantasy IV (Square Enix), 2. Dragon Quest IV: Michibikareshi Monotachi (Square Enix), 3. Kousoku Card Battle: Card Hero (Nintendo), 4. Mario Party DS (Nintendo), 5. Layton Kyouju to Akuma no Hako -- Special Edition (Level 5). UK: 1. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo), 2. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 3. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo), 4. Sight Training (Nintendo), 5. Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo). Flash Focus jumps up several sales positions in the days before Christmas, finishing in second place -- the highest rank the title has achieved since its debut. Brain Age 2 appears to be suffering from a mild shortage at Amazon, though this is expected to clear up in the coming week. New Super Mario Bros. remains on top of North America's chart in the meantime, while the RPG remake duo Final Fantasy IV and Dragon Quest IV clean up in Japan. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (Square Enix), 2. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 3. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (Konami), 4. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (D3 Publisher), 5. Daxter (SCEA). Japan: 1. Star Ocean 1: First Departure (Square Enix), 2. Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku -- Limited Edition (Bandai), 3. Maplus: Portable Navi 2 (Edia), 4. Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku (Bandai), 5. Star Ocean 1: First Departure Eternal Edition (Square Enix). UK: 1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 2. FIFA 08 (EA Sports), 3. The Sims 2: Castaway (EA Games), 4. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 5. Call of Duty: Roads to Victory (Activision). A universal price drop of $10 takes former chart leader Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions back up to first place in North American PSP sales this week, as new PSP owners generate increased demand for the long-popular Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories in post-holiday sales. Japanese PSP sales get a shot in the arm with the release of the remade RPG classic Star Ocean 1: First Departure and the anime-licensed Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku, both of which dominate this week's chart. Both the regular and limited editions of each game are popular choices in Japan this week, and even the PSP console-bundled Eternal Edition of Star Ocean 1 manages a top-five finish, despite its high asking price.