Saling The World: Will Wright vs. Giant Robots

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 March 1st, 2007, feature impressive showings for new releases like The Sims 2: Seasons and Gundam Musou, while Monster Hunter Portable 2nd continues to rule over 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. Wii Play (Nintendo), 2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), 3. SSX Blur (EA Games), 4. WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Nintendo), 5. Sonic and the Secret Rings (Sega). Japan: 1. Wii Sports (Nintendo), 2. Fire Emblem: Akatsuki no Megami (Nintendo), 3. Hajimete no Wii (Nintendo), 4. Zelda no Densetsu: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), 5. Densha de Go! Shinkansen EX: Sanyou Shinkansen Hen (Taito). UK: 1. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), 2. Sonic and the Secret Rings (Sega), 3. WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Nintendo), 4. Red Steel (Ubisoft), 5. Excite Truck (Nintendo). SSX Blur debuts to a third-place finish in the United States this week, while in Japan, Fire Emblem: Akatsuki no Megami falls to second in sales after taking the top spot in its first week of release. Japan also sees a sudden sharp increase in preorder numbers for the upcoming Super Paper Mario this week, while the United States focuses its attention on soon-to-be-released titles like Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 and Cooking Mama: Cook Off. Xbox 360 North America: 1. Tony Hawk's Project 8 (Activision), 2. Crackdown (Microsoft), 3. Major League Baseball 2K7 (2K Sports), 4. Gears of War (Microsoft), 5. Dance Dance Revolution Universe Bundle (Konami). Japan: 1. Riot Act (Microsoft), 2. Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (Tecmo), 3. Gears of War (Microsoft), 4. Final Fantasy XI All-in-One Pack 2006 (Square Enix), 5. Atsumare! Pinata (Microsoft). UK: 1. Crackdown (Microsoft), 2. Gears of War (Microsoft), 3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2K Games), 4. Dead Rising (Capcom), 5. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom). Amazon's daily video game deals once again play a major role in this week's sales data, as the temporarily discounted Tony Hawk's Project 8 reigns supreme in Xbox 360 sales in the United States this week. Meanwhile, Major League Baseball 2K7 fares well in the days following its debut, and Dance Dance Revolution Universe also manages to creep into the top five in its first week of release, despite a premium price point of $79.99 for versions bundled with a dance mat controller. PlayStation 3 North America: 1. Formula One Championship Edition (SCEA), 2. Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega), 3. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEA), 4. Major League Baseball 2K7 (2K Sports), 5. Need for Speed Carbon (EA Games). Japan: 1. Gundam Musou (Bandai), 2. Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega), 3. Armored Core 4 (From Software), 4. MotorStorm (SCEI), 5. Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom (Spike). The upcoming release of MotorStorm is greatly anticipated by many PlayStation 3 owners in North America, as preorders are quickly ramping up in the days prior to its retail debut. Recently released titles such as Formula One Championship Edition and Major League Baseball 2K7 are also performing well, and favorites like Virtua Fighter 5 and Resistance: Fall of Man continue to move big numbers on a weekly basis in both the U.S. and Japan. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. Guitar Hero II Bundle (Activision), 2. God of War (SCEA), 3. MLB 07: The Show (SCEA), 4. Karaoke Revolution Party (Konami), 5. Bully (Rockstar). Japan: 1. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Matsuri (Alchemist), 2. Okami: PlayStation 2 The Best (Capcom), 3. Kohitsuji Hokaku Keakaku! Sweet Boys Life (Idea Factory), 4. Destroy All Humans! (Sega), 5. Interlude: Best Version Pandora Box (Interchannel-Holon). UK: 1. Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix), 2. EyeToy Play 3: Camera Bundle (SCEE), 3. Canis Canem Edit (Rockstar), 4. SingStar '80s (SCEE), 5. SingStar (SCEE). The PS2 port of Sony's MLB 07: The Show achieves surprisingly strong sales in the week of its debut, considering the popularity of fellow baseball sim Major League Baseball 2K7 on other consoles. 2K Sports's rival offering places thirteenth in PS2 software sales this week, though sales on next-gen consoles are considerably better. Elsewhere in the world, Final Fantasy XII is still wowing RPG fans in Europe, and a variety of text-based adventure titles are high in demand in Japan. PC North America: 1. The Sims 2: Seasons (EA Games), 2. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard), 3. Supreme Commander (THQ), 4. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 5. The Sims 2 (EA Games). Japan: 1. Lineage II: Interlude Masters Kit (NC Japan), 2. Battlefield 2142 (EA Games), 3. Heart no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Wonder World~ (QuinRose), 4. Princess Maker Memorial Box (Cyber Front), 5. SimCity 4 Deluxe (EA Games). UK: 1. The Sims 2: Seasons (EA Games), 2. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 3. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard), 4. Supreme Commander: UEF Faction Pack (THQ), 5. Supreme Commander (THQ). The latest expansion pack for The Sims 2, The Sims 2: Seasons, debuts to take first place in software sales across all platforms in the United States and the UK this week, outpacing previous sales leader World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Supreme Commander also falls a bit behind after a strong debut in both regions, though sales for the title are still particularly strong in Europe, where two different editions are available for sale at Amazon. Nintendo DS North America: 1. Brain Age (Nintendo), 2. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 3. Diddy Kong Racing DS (Nintendo), 4. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo), 5. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Konami). Japan: 1. SimCity DS (EA Games), 2. Layton Kyouju no Fushigi na Machi (Level 5), 3. Sekaiju no Meikyuu (Atlus), 4. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (Square Enix), 5. Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Eigo Duke (Nintendo). UK: 1. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo), 2. Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo), 3. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 4. 42 All-Time Classics (Nintendo), 5. Nintendogs: Lab & Friends (Nintendo). Price reduction again results in newfound popularity for older titles this week, as Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin finds itself back among the week's top-selling DS games thanks to a 40% discount from MSRP at Amazon. Its prequel, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, has also seen a reduction in price recently, and ranks in as the week's seventh best-selling DS title in the United States. Japan, on the other hand, sees its biggest sales in the recent SimCity DS, which will find release in other parts of the world later this year. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 3. MLB 07: The Show (SCEA), 4. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (SCEA), 5. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (Konami). Japan: 1. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (Capcom), 2. Maplus: Portable Navi (Edia), 3. Tales of Destiny 2 (Namco), 4. Metal Slug Complete (SNK Playmore), 5. Kanon (Prototype). UK: 1. Sega Mega Drive Collection (Sega), 2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 3. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 4. Star Wars: Lethal Alliance (Ubisoft), 5. Mind Quiz (Sega). Mirroring the success of its PlayStation 2 counterpart, MLB 07: The Show also places high in this week's North American PSP software sales. In Japan, meanwhile, Capcom's Monster Hunter Portable 2nd manages to be the region's single best-selling software title for the second week in a row, selling more than 700,000 copies since its debut late last month. With few anticipated PSP titles expected to see release until April, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd's dominance could remain uncontested for weeks to come.