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UK Charts: Fable-ous Week For Microsoft

The year’s busiest week of new releases in the UK has seen the launch of Lionhead’s Fable II greatly outperforming the original’s. There was also success for Far Cry 2 and Dead Space, despite other new titles getting lost in the rush.

David Jenkins, Blogger

October 28, 2008

3 Min Read
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The year’s busiest week of new releases in the UK has seen Lionhead’s Fable II on Xbox 360 top the sales chart, outselling the original’s launch week by a factor of 3.81 to 1. In a good week for 360 releases Fable II has become the first number one in the UK for Microsoft since Halo 3 over a year ago and the fifth fastest selling 360 game ever in the UK (behind Grand Theft Auto IV, Halo 3, FIFA 09 and Call of Duty 4). Although the PlayStation 3 version of Saints Row 2 fell four places to number 11, the 360 version rose one place to number two. The 360 version of Ubisoft’s Far Cry 2 debuted at number three, giving the 360 the entire top three. The PS3 version of Far Cry 2 entered the charts at number six, with the PC version at number 12. The split between formats was thus relative even, with the 360 on 43 percent, the PS3 on 33 percent and the PC on 24 percent. The only other new entry in the top 10, at number 10, was the 360 version of EA’s adult rated Dead Space, with the PS3 version at number 16. Despite an unremarkable number of new entries in the top 40 itself, a huge number of other titles were released at the same time, with Rockstar’s Midnight Club: Los Angeles having to make do with a chart position of number 19 for the PS3 version and number 20 for the 360. With Family Ski (aka We Ski) on the Wii re-entering the charts at number 33 many of the other new releases were squeezed out, with EA’s Monopoly, Nintendo’s Disaster: Day of Crisis, Capcom’s MotoGP 08 and Activision’s Spider-Man: Web of Shadows all failing to chart in the top 40. Some titles did squeeze into the combine format charts, with MotoGP 08 at number 32 and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows at number 38, but as usual UK publishers’ instance on releasing multiple high profile games on the same day has had its inevitable casualties. A situation that would have been execrated even further had LittleBigPlanet been released at the same time, as originally intended.

TW

LW

Title

Publisher

Format

1

NE

Fable II

Microsoft

360

2

3

Saints Row 2

THQ

360

3

NE

Far Cry 2

Ubisoft

360

4

1

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009

Konami

PS3

5

2

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009

Konami

360

6

NE

Far Cry 2

Ubisoft

PS3

7

4

Wii Fit

Nintendo

Wii

8

8

Mario Kart Wii

Nintendo

Wii

9

5

FIFA 09

EA

360

10

NE

Dead Space

EA

360

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2008. ELSPA Ltd

About the Author

David Jenkins

Blogger

David Jenkins ([email protected]) is a freelance writer and journalist working in the UK. As well as being a regular news contributor to Gamasutra.com, he also writes for newsstand magazines Cube, Games TM and Edge, in addition to working for companies including BBC Worldwide, Disney, Amazon and Telewest.

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