14 DAY TRIAL // In a period of no significant videogame releases, the videogame charts tend to tell you more about the long lasting popularity of titles than about their ability to quickly rack up sales. So, taking a look at the software chart coming out of the United Kingdom, one can only wonder what Nintendo does to make its games so capable of generating revenue in the long term.
Mario Kart Wii, which is by no means a new release, sits at number one, being followed by fellow Nintendo published Wii titles Wii Fit and Wii Play. In fourth place, we find another title for the motion tracking console, Big Beach Sports created by THQ.
Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training sit in the number five spot and the game, which is also known under the name Brain Age, has broken another sales record this week as it manages to stay in the charts for more than 80 weeks. The number one title is the first Tomb Raider game, which, thanks to Lara Croft's good looks, managed to stay in the chart for an impressive 79 weeks straight.
The top ten is dominated by titles for the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii. Just one game manages to break the virtual monopoly that Nintendo enjoys. Beijing 2008, published by SEGA, the official game of the Olympics, is still going strong for both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, taking places 9 and 10.
It will be interesting to see how the Wii best seller does later during the fall and in the run up to Christmas, when major game releases are scheduled to take place. On the one hand, we might see the top spots in games sales go to titles like Spore or LittleBigPlanet but, on the other hand, the continued popularity of the Wii console almost guarantees that Wii Play, Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii will enjoy strong sales.