04,05 MCV583_FINAL:4-5 MCV515
13/4/10
17:42
Page 2
WWW.MCVUK.COM
MCV 16/04/10 5
NEWS
EA and Battlefield dominate March [PRE ORDERS]
UK games market slips seven per cent in March compared to 2009 Battlefield is the month’s best-selling game by Christopher Dring THE VALUE of the UK games software market fell in March by seven per cent year-on-year, according to ELSPA/GfK Chart-Track. The monthly charts show that EA’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was the biggest selling title of the month, followed by Final Fantasy XIII and Ubisoft’s evergreen hit Just Dance. These blockbuster releases couldn’t reverse the downward trend the industry is seeing in sales of boxed games. MCV revealed last week that UK sales had fallen 7.8 per cent for the entire of Q1. However, games still made £303 million during the period.
TOP 10
EA was the dominant publisher of the month. The company took a 17.5 per cent of the market in March in terms of units and 18.2 per cent share in terms of value. Square Enix also shot up the publisher rankings courtesy of Final Fantasy and Just Cause 2. In terms of sales for March by value, 360 was the most successful format, but only just, with PlayStation 3 a mere 0.1 per cent behind it. But in terms of units of games sold Wii was the leading platform, followed by DS – thanks to the lower average price of Wii and DS titles versus PS3 and 360.
RED DEAD REDEMPTION: LIMITED EDITION 360, ROCKSTAR
2. RED DEAD REDEMPTION LIM ED PS3 ....................................ROCKSTAR
3. SUPER SF IV + T-SHIRT PS3 ......................................CAPCOM
4. SPLINTER CELL: CONVICTION + T-SHIRT 360 ......................................UBISOFT
5. SUPER SF IV + T-SHIRT 360 ......................................CAPCOM
6. SPLINTER CELL: CONVICTION + LONG-T 360 ......................................UBISOFT
7. RED DEAD REDEMPTION PS3 ....................................ROCKSTAR
THE MONTH’S CHAMPIONS
8. 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP PS3 ..............................................EA
It was a big month for Square Enix, with two new games in the Top Five – Just Cause 2 and Final Fantasy XIII. However, it was EA’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2 that was the month’s top performer.
9. RED DEAD REDEMPTION 360 ....................................ROCKSTAR
1: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 .............................................EA 2: Final Fantasy XIII ...............................................Square Enix 3: Just Dance ....................................................................Ubisoft 4: Just Cause 2 .......................................................Square Enix 5: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 .......................Activision 6: God of War III ...................................................................Sony 7: Wii Fit Plus ................................................................Nintendo 8: Heavy Rain .........................................................................Sony 9: Wii Sports Resort ....................................................Nintendo 10: Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing ................................Sega
10. 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP 360 ..............................................EA Week ending: April 9th Source: SHOPTO.COM Turn to page 41 for more pre-order charts from leading online retailers
UK SOFTWARE SALES MONITOR Your weekly guide to the UK games software market… There were no new releases last week and it showed. Total UK software sales for the week ending April 10th plummeted 30 per cent to £18m. Unit sales were down 27 per cent to 892,175. The only software release of note was a Borderlands DLC-on-disc pack.
[WEEKLY MARKET VALUE] Week Ending April 9th 2010
£18.0m
This is the lowest week so far for the UK games market in 2010, with sales down for all the games in the Chart-Track Top 40. This allowed Just Dance to hold on to the top spot. Next week the market should bounce back with the launch of Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Conviction – the first in a string of big new releases for the summer. FIFA World Cup 2010 follows on April 30th.
Total UK Software Sales Source: ELSPA/ChartTrack and Intent Media
25
20
15
10
5
Ubisoft’s Just Dance held its spot at the top – the game is now the UK’s third biggest selling third-party Wii title
£23.3m
£25.7m
£18m
1,021,965 Units
1,222,138 Units
892,175
Units
0 Week Ending March 27th
Week Ending April 2nd
Week Ending April 9th