The Force is Strong with this No1
The force is stronger than it has ever been before with the debut of ‘Star Wars: The Force Unleashed’ at No1 in the All Formats Chart, the biggest launch week ever for a Star Wars game.
Released across all major formats (PS2, PS3, PSP, XB360, Wii and DS), the LucasArts title storms to No1 in every chart except Nintendo Wii and DS (where it reached No3 and No39 respectively). 48% of sales were on Xbox 360 and 30% on PS3, making it the 10th fastest selling title ever for each format. The Wii version accounted for 15% of sales with the remainder on PS2, PSP and DS. ‘Star Wars: The Force Unleashed’ may be the biggest all-formats launch since GTA IV, but Nintendo content themselves this week with success on their own titles as renewed stock of ‘Wii Fit’ and ‘Mario Kart Wii’ push them both up 3 places to No’s 2 and 3 respectively.
They are the only All Formats Top 10 titles to increase in sales, while sales of last week’s No1 from EA, ‘Mercenaries 2’, plummet by 65%, dropping to No6 in the All Formats Chart. EA however are the only other company to register any new releases in the Top 40 this week thanks to 2 new PC games: MMORPG and Warcraft competitor ‘Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning’ entering at No4 and ‘Crysis Warhead’ at No21. EA may have gone from having all Top 3 games to none in the Top 3, but they still have a strong Top 10 presence with ‘Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09’ down from No2 to No5 and ‘Spore’ falling from No3 to No10. Outside the Top 10, Activision-Blizzard are back on song with ‘Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock’ up from No27 to No12, helped by a retailer promotion on the Wii version, but ‘Guitar Hero: On Tour’ on DS falls out of the Top 10, down from No8 to No23.