Saling The World: _Vice City, Neverwinter_ing

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 November 2nd, 2006, includes fantasies of finality, nights that never winter, and stories involving cities of vice. 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: Xbox 360 North America: 1. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Activision), 2. FIFA 07 (EA Sports), 3. Need for Speed Carbon (EA Games), 4. Madden NFL 07 (EA Sports), 5. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Ubisoft). Japan: 1. Rumble Roses XX (Konami), 2. Table Tennis (Rockstar), 3. Ninety-Nine Nights (Microsoft), 4. The Outfit (THQ), 5. Need for Speed Most Wanted (EA Games). UK: 1. Need for Speed Carbon (EA Games), 2. Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (Konami), 3. FIFA 07 (EA Sports), 4. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Ubisoft), 5. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Activision). Need for Speed Carbon takes first place in PS2 sales in Europe this week, after spending only a few short days on store shelves. The title performs decently in the United States as well, though Marvel: Ultimate Alliance remains a strong competitor in both regions. In Japan, meanwhile, Rumble Roses XX sees a newfound surge in popularity, thanks to its recent addition to Microsoft's budget-priced Platinum Collection lineup. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix), 2. Madden NFL 07 (EA Sports), 3. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Activision), 4. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 5. Bully (Rockstar). Japan: 1. Ryuu ga Gotoku (Sega), 2. Utawarerumono (Aqua Plus), 3. Mermaid Prism (D3 Publisher), 4. Dragon Ball Z Sparking! NEO (Bandai), 5. Minna no Tennis (SCEJ). UK: 1. Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (Konami), 2. Canis Canem Edit (Rockstar), 3. FIFA 07 (EA Sports), 4. Need for Speed Carbon (EA Games), 5. SingStar Legends (SCEE). With few other titles even coming close to matching its initial sales numbers, Final Fantasy XII emerges as the best-selling video game release across all platforms in the United States in the week of its debut. With such a strong start, the title seems poised to keep the top U.S. PS2 sales spot for many weeks to come. PC North America: 1. Neverwinter Nights 2 (Atari), 2. Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Microsoft), 3. The Sims 2: Pets (EA Games), 4. The Sims 2 (EA Games), 5. Nancy Drew: The Creature of Kapu Cave (Atari). Japan: 1. Ultima Online 9th Anniversary Collection (EA Games), 2. The Sims 2: Pet Life! (EA Games), 3. Battlefield 2142 (EA Games), 4. Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs (Microsoft), 5. Palais de Reine (Kogado Studio). UK: 1. The Sims 2: Pets (EA Games), 2. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade (THQ), 3. Neverwinter Nights 2 (Atari), 4. Football Manager 2007 (Sega), 5. The Sims 2 (EA Games). Neverwinter Nights 2 sees impressive sales in the days following its release, resulting in it becoming the week's biggest-selling PC title in the United States. The title also places high in Europe, where it battled but didn't quite match the popularity of recent hits like The Sims 2: Pets and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade. Nintendo DS North America: 1. Brain Age (Nintendo), 2. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 3. Pokémon Ranger (Nintendo), 4. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team (Nintendo), 5. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Nippon Joushikiryoku Kenteikau Kanshuu: Imasara Jin ni wa Kikienai - Otona no Joushikiryoku Training DS (Nintendo), 2. Pocket Monsters Diamond (Nintendo), 3. Hoshi no Kirby: Sanjou! Dorocche Dan (Nintendo), 4. Pocket Monsters Pearl (Nintendo), 5. Touhoku Daigaku Mirai Kagaku Gijutsu Kyoudou Kenkyuu Center Kawashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu: Motto Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training (Nintendo). UK: 1. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo), 2. Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo), 3. The Sims 2: Pets (EA Games), 4. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 5. Nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends (Nintendo). The simultaneous popularity of both Otona no Joushikiryoku Training DS and Brain Age sequel Motto Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training makes for a particularly lengthy top-seller list in Japan this week. Falling in between these two titles is newcomer Hoshi no Kirby: Sanjou! Dorocche Dan, which proves to be popular enough to defeat the nigh-invulnerable Pocket Monsters Pearl in sales in its first week of release. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 2. Madden NFL 07 (EA Sports), 3. Medal of Honor: Heroes (EA Games), 4. Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception (Bandai Namco Games), 5. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar). Japan: 1. Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception (Namco), 2. Planetarium Curator Ohira Takayuki Kanshuu: Home Star Portable (Sega), 3. Gundam Battle Royale (Bandai), 4. SD Gundam G Generation Portable (Bandai), 5. Ridge Racers 2 (Namco). UK: 1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 2. FIFA 07 (EA Sports), 3. Cars (THQ), 4. Pilot Academy (Codemasters), 5. Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City (EA Games). The highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories made a strong impression in its first week of release, and had little trouble outselling all competing PSP software in both the United States and Europe. Ace Combat X also proves to be a fast seller in multiple regions, particularly so in Japan, where a recent rise in PSP hardware sales has been attributed to the title's popularity. Game Boy Advance North America: 1. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (Nintendo), 2. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (Nintendo), 3. Cars (THQ), 4. Namco Museum (Namco), 5. Super Mario Advance (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Final Fantasy V Advance (Square Enix), 2. Pocket Monsters Emerald (Nintendo), 3. Rhythm Tengoku (Nintendo), 4. Pocket Monsters FireRed (Nintendo), 5. Pocket Monsters Leaf Green (Nintendo). UK: 1. Cars (THQ), 2. LEGO Star wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 3. FIFA 07 (EA Sports), 4. Dogz (Ubisoft), 5. The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (Vivendi). Few surprises can be found in the Game Boy Advance sales charts this week, with the only anomaly being Namco Museum, which sees new life in the United States thanks to a recent discount in price. Elsewhere, licensed titles and Pokémon continue to reign as usual. Xbox North America: 1. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Activision), 2. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 3. Madden NFL 07 (EA Sports), 4. Justice League Heroes (Eidos), 5. Halo 2 (Microsoft). Japan: 1. Halo (Microsoft), 2. Halo 2 (Microsoft), 3. Rogue Ops (Kotobuki Systems), 4. Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (Tecmo), 5. Fable (Microsoft). UK: 1. FIFA 07 (EA Sports), 2. LEGO Star wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 3. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Ubisoft), 4. Family Guy (2K Games), 5. Scarface: The World is Yours (Vivendi). While Justice League Heroes may have handily defeated Marvel: Ultimate Alliance in terms of sales last week, this week sees a sudden reversal of fortune for the former top superhero team-up title in the United States. Despite last week's numbers, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is now the best-selling of the two titles by a wide margin across all available platforms in both the U.S. and the UK. GameCube North America: 1. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 2. LEGO Star Wars (Eidos), 3. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (Nintendo), 4. Madden NFL 07 (EA Sports), 5. Animal Crossing (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Pokémon XD: Yami no Kaze Dark Lugia (Nintendo), 2. Bokujou Monogatari: Shiawase no Uta for World (Marvelous), 3. Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus (Sega), 4. Pokémon Colosseum (Nintendo), 5. Doubutsu no Mori+ (Nintendo). UK: 1. FIFA 07 (EA Sports), 2. Need for Speed Carbon (EA Games), 3. LEGO Star Wars (Eidos), 4. The Sims 2: Pets (EA Games), 5. The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (Vivendi). This month's release of the Nintendo Wii could very well mark the end of the need to track GameCube software sales. Post-Wii GameCube releases now number in the single digits for all regions, and with no incoming software to cause meaningful change in weekly sales, there remains little point in documenting the GameCube's best sellers. So long, GameCube. You had a good run.