The Charts: Movie Cash-Ins Fail to Cash-In
Budget bonanza as summer holiday buying trails off.
It seems that the summer holiday games buying bonanza has finished, with most families having already taken off on their annual hols, having tooled up little Tommy and Johnny with their requisite copies of the latest DS/GBA kids’ movie tie-in games. So this week is all about the budget games. Yawn.
Last week was the summer’s peak in terms of software sales and it seems it’s all downhill now, until the pre-Xmas hype machine triggers the next buying bonanza which, going by trends in recent years, could well be as early as September!
There's no movement at the top of the All Formats Chart this week, with THQ’s Cars comfortably holding onto top slot, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories coasting at two and Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros. still bouncing along at number three.
It’s a good week for EA’s budget releases in the top ten this week, with retail promotions pushing The Sims and The Sims 2 both up two places to four and six respectively. A PS2 budget re-release of car modder’s favourite Need for Speed: Most Wanted pushes that title back up the chart into the top ten at eight.
Indeed, taking a look lower down the chart, SPOnG notes that it’s a good week for The Sims franchise in general, with six titles from the series in the charts, thanks to aggressive promotions at retail - The Sims: Unleashed re-enters at 30, The Sims: Superstar jumps up six places to 31 and The Sims: On Holiday and The Sims: Makin’ Magic both make reappearances at numbers 37 and 38.
It seems SCEE has successfully mobilised both the pink and the lady pounds this week, with Singstar Anthems mincing up the chart nine places to 11 (wow! Sexism plus rampant homophobia in one sentence – Ed).
Elsewhere on the PS2 Platinum label, Lucasarts’ Star Wars: Battlefront II hyper-jumps twelve places to 12, and budget reissues of EA’s FIFA 06 and FIFA Street 2 capitalise on the UK’s growing football fever (the Premiership starts this coming weekend for those non-soccerball fans out there) both being booted up the chart to 15 and 17 respectively.
In other news, it’s a disappointing week for Midway and THQ, both companies having released their big summer movie blockbuster tie-ins in the last couple of weeks to notably lacklustre sales. THQ’s Monster House game creeps into the top 40 at 18 following the film’s release last weekend. A shame, as we think it’s a good little game, a notch or two above the average movie-tie in. Midway's The Ant Bully, meanwhile, barely tickles the top 40, brushing the arse hair of the chart at you guessed it - number 40 - in its second week of release.
Last week was the summer’s peak in terms of software sales and it seems it’s all downhill now, until the pre-Xmas hype machine triggers the next buying bonanza which, going by trends in recent years, could well be as early as September!
There's no movement at the top of the All Formats Chart this week, with THQ’s Cars comfortably holding onto top slot, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories coasting at two and Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros. still bouncing along at number three.
It’s a good week for EA’s budget releases in the top ten this week, with retail promotions pushing The Sims and The Sims 2 both up two places to four and six respectively. A PS2 budget re-release of car modder’s favourite Need for Speed: Most Wanted pushes that title back up the chart into the top ten at eight.
Indeed, taking a look lower down the chart, SPOnG notes that it’s a good week for The Sims franchise in general, with six titles from the series in the charts, thanks to aggressive promotions at retail - The Sims: Unleashed re-enters at 30, The Sims: Superstar jumps up six places to 31 and The Sims: On Holiday and The Sims: Makin’ Magic both make reappearances at numbers 37 and 38.
It seems SCEE has successfully mobilised both the pink and the lady pounds this week, with Singstar Anthems mincing up the chart nine places to 11 (wow! Sexism plus rampant homophobia in one sentence – Ed).
Elsewhere on the PS2 Platinum label, Lucasarts’ Star Wars: Battlefront II hyper-jumps twelve places to 12, and budget reissues of EA’s FIFA 06 and FIFA Street 2 capitalise on the UK’s growing football fever (the Premiership starts this coming weekend for those non-soccerball fans out there) both being booted up the chart to 15 and 17 respectively.
In other news, it’s a disappointing week for Midway and THQ, both companies having released their big summer movie blockbuster tie-ins in the last couple of weeks to notably lacklustre sales. THQ’s Monster House game creeps into the top 40 at 18 following the film’s release last weekend. A shame, as we think it’s a good little game, a notch or two above the average movie-tie in. Midway's The Ant Bully, meanwhile, barely tickles the top 40, brushing the arse hair of the chart at you guessed it - number 40 - in its second week of release.
Companies:
Nintendo Rockstar THQ
Games: Disney Presents a PIXAR Film: Cars Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories New Super Mario Bros.
Games: Disney Presents a PIXAR Film: Cars Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories New Super Mario Bros.
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