360 Suffers as EA Tops the Charts

Please, someone, anyone, release something that can challenge EA's monster game on the charts.

Hear that sound? That's the collective yawn that's stretching across the UK. As January drags on, publishers are showing great moral character by refusing to budge on their "no new games in the beginning of the year" policy, which suits EA fine, as it allowed Need for Speed: Most Wanted to take its eighth No. 1 spot.

King Kong and The Sims 2 are still battling with this year's footie duo of FIFA 06 and Pro Evolution Soccer 5, rounding out what has been an almost exclusive Top 5 for weeks now.

There was one new game that hit stores last week: Ridge Racer 6 for Xbox 360. Despite glowing endorsements from certain corners of the specialist press, the odds were against Namco's racer. There simply aren't enough Xbox 360s available for a relatively obscure game to make a more than mediocre showing on the charts.

Microsoft is barely keeping to its promise of releasing new systems to stores on a regular basis, but it seems that there are enough to keep Xbox 360-exclusive racer Project Gotham Racing 3 in the Top 20. Rare's Perfect Dark Zero is perhaps doing less well, scraping back into the charts as it did this week in 27th position.

Below are the top 10 games in the UK for the week ending 21 January, as determined by Chart Track:

1. Need For Speed: Most Wanted (EA)
2. King Kong (Ubisoft)
3. The Sims 2 (EA)
4. Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (Konami)
5. FIFA 06 (EA)
6. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar)
7. Star Wars: Battlefront II (LucasArts)
8. WWE: SmackDown! Vs RAW 2006 (THQ)
9. Call of Duty 2 (Activision)
10. Gun (Activision)

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games