UK Game Charts See GTA's Win, Movie Games' Surge

As the traditional summer games drought starts to bite, the end of the World Cup has at least allowed for some small amount of movement in the latest UK game sales charts. The top two were entirely static, though, despite sales of the still chart-topping Liberty City Stories decreasing by 32 percent and second place New Super Mario Bros. by 4 percent. Activision’s Over the Hedge has moved up four places to number three, while the highest new entry of the week, at number eight, is also movie related with the portable only tie-in to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (a Pirates of the Caribbean game not directly based on the new movie is due for the PlayStation 2 and PC next week). The other new entry in the top ten is Sega’s Chromehounds, which like Over G Fighters before it, has weathered generally poor reviews to satisfy the appetites of Xbox 360 owners who have not been well served by new exclusive titles in recent months. Other new entries outside the top ten include Codemasters’ semi budget priced Micro Machines V4 at number nineteen, and fellow British publisher Empire’s FlatOut 2 at number twenty-six. Meanwhile, Nintendo’s Big Brain Academy has failed to achieve the same impressive debut as Brain Training at number twenty-nine – although it has had far less marketing than the earlier title.

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2006 ELSPA Ltd