PlayStation rules Irish Xmas charts
With the PlayStation 3 launch delayed, pre-Christmas headlines read
“Sony runs Christmas”, but PlayStation brands accounted for the
vast majority of computer games under Christmas trees in Ireland,
writes Cian Ginty.
In the Irish multi-format games charts Sony’s PlayStation 2 and
PlayStation Portable secured over 70% of total sales of the games in
the top 10 Christmas chart, and 80% of the top five titles.
The Christmas top are Need for Speed: Carbon (EA), Fifa 07 (EA), Pro
Evolution Soccer 6 (Konami), WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2007 (THQ), and Call
of Duty 3 (Activision).
Nintendo consoles combined — mainly handhelds — followed with
17% of the top 10. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console only managed to take
6.9%, with a mere 0.3% extra from the original Xbox.
These percentages — not normally published — are sent out by
ChartTrack on their weekly chart reports. The charts show the most
popular games according data collected at retail points on the
highstreet and on websites including CDWow.com and Play.com.
The multi-format chart includes percentage breakdowns of how much was sold on different games systems.
Popular exclusive games are extremely important in the console wars.
Reflecting their strength in the Irish games market, Sony has five of
these exclusives in the top 20.
Nintendo also beats Microsoft in this arena, with two better-placed
exclusives that have survived on the charts for about 25 weeks. This is
compared with the sole Xbox 360 exclusive, the premier Christmas title
‘Gears of War’ at 18th place and only on the charts for six weeks.
Last Christmas we reported that the Xbox brands rarely received much
more then 10% of sales of any individual games released on multiple
systems, and never above 20%. This has improved this year, but only
slightly. There was only one title that the 360 receive more then 15%
of sales, it was Call of Duty 3 at 32%.
The total breakdown of Xbox 360 sales are as follows (1) Need for
Speed: Carbon with 7%, (2) FIFA 07 with 6%, (2) Pro Evolution Soccer 6
with 13% (4) WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2007 with 11%, (5) Call of Duty 3
with 32%, (17) Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 with 15%, (18) Gears of War with
100, and (20) Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy with 4%.
With a massive install base, and the launch of the PlayStation 3 in
March, Ireland’s love affair with the PlayStation brand shows few
signs of changing.
ChartTrack’s Irish charts for Christmas week 2006 is currently
shown to the left. Also see the Games Toaster story on last year’s Christmas Irish games chart and a comprehensive report on the charts from week one 2006 to the week ending July 15.
Hundreds line outside Dublin stores for Wii
One retailer’s
pricing sets Ireland out to be one of the dearest places
in the world to buy Nintendo’s new Wii games console.
Hundreds of gamers lined up outside GameStop on Henry Street and
‘Game’ on Dawson Street last night to be among the first to buy a Wii
at midnight store openings.
Speaking on Today FM’ s Ray Foley Show this afternoon, Michael
Finucane, GameStop’s commercial director, said that while the first
release of Wiis were mostly reserved for people who pre-ordered their
consoles, GamesStop should have a shipment which will include
non-booked consoles sometime next week.
He said this will be followed by another shipment before Christmas.
The recommended euro price is
Late Late Toy Show: Wii’s wee appearance
Wiffy.ie, an independent Irish Nintendo website, isn’t too impressed with the Nintendo Wii’s showing on the Late Late Toy Show:
We waited, we sat through the cringingly poor intro about aliens, we
even watched the Billy Barry Oompa Loompa’s without flicking over, Even
when the annoying kid from Kerry was falsetto’ing his way through a
book about pirates, we still stayed loyal to the Toy Show. And after
about 90minutes, it came, after a marathan ad about Chanel with Nicole
Kidman, Pat Kenny introduced the Wii… [more]