SPOnG doesn’t want to get overly judgemental about what ‘the mass market’ considers buy-worthy… but come on, people! This week sees Little Britain: The Video Game climbing insidiously from Number 14 to Number 2, while the wonderful (reviewed just last week)Okami places at a miserable Number 17.
Things don't look too much better in overall software sales, either. The market drops 7% in units and 4% in value. It's a particularly mixed bag for Nintendo, as the DS sees its best ever market share but the Wii hits its software low-point since launch. The DS grabs 13.9% of games sold and 16% in value (despite dropping 1% from last week in both departments). The Wii – possibly due to hardware shortages, possibly due to no decent games since everyone completed Wairo Ware - drops 33% in units (32% of total games sold value).
Eidos becomes the fourth publisher of the year to nab the top spot, with Battlestations: Midway blasting in at Number 1 for the PC, PS2, 360, and Xbox. SPOnG just wishes Eidos could have not named it after another publisher…
The aforementioned Little Britain: The Video Game from Mastertronic sneaks up from Number 14 to Number 2. EA's FIFA 07 holds steady at Number 3, while Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 6 is nudged down to Number 4 by Little Britain. It has to be said, however, that there are only a paltry 50 sales between the two.
Two new entries manage to make the Top 20. THQ's Avatar: The Legend of Aang on every format you could shake a stick at (except the 360) comes in at Number 13. The superb Okami from Capcom (of which, as we said but we can’t say it enough, you can read SPOnG's review here) comes in at Number 17 exclusively for the PS2.
Nintendo's Wii Play and WarioWare: Smooth Moves both trickle out of the Top 10, falling to Numbers 27 and 21 respectively. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess doesn't fare much better, slipping from Number 13 to Number 26.
The good news for Nintendo is that the DS performs admirably. Nintendogs: Lab & Friends and Nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends both re-enter the chart at Numbers 28 and 30 respectively. Was there a showing of 101 Dalmatians last week that no one told SPOnG about.
A source close to the industry was good enough to point out to SPOnG that of the 92 SKUs in the chart ('SKU' – Stock Keeping Unit - being useful industry jargon for a version of a game on a given format) 16 were exclusive to a particular platform. Every single one of those made the Top 30 SKUs, while seven of them made the Top 10.
“So what?” you might ask. Well, by looking at the SKU for FIFA 06 on the 360 (as opposed to looking at the game on all formats) and comparing that to, say, the PS2-exclusive Okami, you're getting a much better comparison for a games level of popularity.
With that in mind, seven platform exclusives in the Top 10 SKUs indicate to SPOnG that there're a lot of games out there (yes, Little Britain, we're looking at you) that are performing well only due to being available on so many platforms.
Anyway, we're expecting a bit of a boost for the software market next week as half term hits. Get out your purses, parents! But only if you’re not the parent of a poltroon, of course.
Things don't look too much better in overall software sales, either. The market drops 7% in units and 4% in value. It's a particularly mixed bag for Nintendo, as the DS sees its best ever market share but the Wii hits its software low-point since launch. The DS grabs 13.9% of games sold and 16% in value (despite dropping 1% from last week in both departments). The Wii – possibly due to hardware shortages, possibly due to no decent games since everyone completed Wairo Ware - drops 33% in units (32% of total games sold value).
Eidos becomes the fourth publisher of the year to nab the top spot, with Battlestations: Midway blasting in at Number 1 for the PC, PS2, 360, and Xbox. SPOnG just wishes Eidos could have not named it after another publisher…
The aforementioned Little Britain: The Video Game from Mastertronic sneaks up from Number 14 to Number 2. EA's FIFA 07 holds steady at Number 3, while Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 6 is nudged down to Number 4 by Little Britain. It has to be said, however, that there are only a paltry 50 sales between the two.
Two new entries manage to make the Top 20. THQ's Avatar: The Legend of Aang on every format you could shake a stick at (except the 360) comes in at Number 13. The superb Okami from Capcom (of which, as we said but we can’t say it enough, you can read SPOnG's review here) comes in at Number 17 exclusively for the PS2.
Nintendo's Wii Play and WarioWare: Smooth Moves both trickle out of the Top 10, falling to Numbers 27 and 21 respectively. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess doesn't fare much better, slipping from Number 13 to Number 26.
The good news for Nintendo is that the DS performs admirably. Nintendogs: Lab & Friends and Nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends both re-enter the chart at Numbers 28 and 30 respectively. Was there a showing of 101 Dalmatians last week that no one told SPOnG about.
A source close to the industry was good enough to point out to SPOnG that of the 92 SKUs in the chart ('SKU' – Stock Keeping Unit - being useful industry jargon for a version of a game on a given format) 16 were exclusive to a particular platform. Every single one of those made the Top 30 SKUs, while seven of them made the Top 10.
“So what?” you might ask. Well, by looking at the SKU for FIFA 06 on the 360 (as opposed to looking at the game on all formats) and comparing that to, say, the PS2-exclusive Okami, you're getting a much better comparison for a games level of popularity.
With that in mind, seven platform exclusives in the Top 10 SKUs indicate to SPOnG that there're a lot of games out there (yes, Little Britain, we're looking at you) that are performing well only due to being available on so many platforms.
Anyway, we're expecting a bit of a boost for the software market next week as half term hits. Get out your purses, parents! But only if you’re not the parent of a poltroon, of course.
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