14 DAY TRIAL // It takes a courageous publisher and a very solid videogame to compete in August in the North American videogame market, as this is the time frame in which, normally, Electronic Arts puts out the annual installment of Madden NFL 10, the American football franchise that is one of the main money makers for the company. So, it's no surprise to see the sports title at the top of the videogame sales chart but the overall make up of the top ten is pretty interesting nonetheless.
The Xbox 360 version of Madden NFL 10 has sold 928,000 copies since launch, while the PlayStation 3 version sold 665,000 units, taking first and third place. Overall, the videogames managed to move close to 1.9 million units on all the platforms, with GamesIndustry.biz reporting that it sold just 67,000 on the Wii and 80,000 on the PSP. Second place in the chart went, again unsurprisingly, to Wii Sports Resort from Nintendo, which moved 754,000 units to gamers.
The other big game of August has been Batman: Arkham Asylum from Eidos, recently bought by Square Enix. The two versions of the game held number 4 and 5, with the Xbox 360 version selling 303,000 units, and the PS3, 290,000. The PlayStation 2 version of the Madden game is at sixth place, with 160,000 units sold.
Square Enix took seventh place with Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the PlayStation Portable, while Wii Fit is in eight place, charting more than one year after its release. Mario Kart Wii is similarly resilient, coming in at nine, while Fossil Fighters from Red Entertainment for the Nintendo DS came in last in the top ten with just 92,000 copies sold, showing what a weak month for gaming August was.
It's interesting to note that for the games that have PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions in the chart, the numbers are pretty close. Add to this the fact that overall sales of PS3 software are the only ones actually up over 2008 and you can see why Sony must be pleased with the August NPD numbers.