FIFA Kicks Off the UK Charts

The latest entry in the football series captures the top spot in a week that saw few new releases.

EA kicked off this year's battle of the football games on Friday, releasing its latest update to the venerable FIFA series. FIFA 07 is out on eight platforms now, but it's the PlayStation 2 iteration that everybody wanted - or 84 per cent of the audience, to be specific.

All of this led to FIFA 07 having the seventh best start of any game ever in the UK, though that's one spot worse than last year's entry.

Perhaps through anticipation of FIFA 07's massive splash, many publishers held back this week, though Square Enix did foist Kingdom Hearts II on RPG fans. The sequel is doing much better than its predecessor, already selling five times better than the original Kingdom Hearts.

There's a steady climb for old-time racer Project Gotham Racing 3, which is getting a healthy boost on the charts thanks to it being bundled with the Xbox 360 in a new Microsoft promotion.

The DS is still strong in the UK. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? managed another Top 10 finish, but not everything on the portable is a guaranteed hit, as demonstrated by 42 All-Time Classics, which parlayed its card game formula into a lowly 36th placing.

The Top 10 games for the week ending 30 September, as determined by Chart Track, are below:

1. FIFA 07 (EA)
2. Just Cause (Eidos)
3. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (EA)
4. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts)
5. Kingdom Hearts II (Square Enix)
6. LMA Manager 2007 (Codemasters)
7. Company of Heroes (THQ)
8. Cars (THQ)
9. The Godfather (EA)
10. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? (Nintendo)

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo