FIFA 07 Tops Year-End Crush

And the UK games industry has its best week ever.

As much as it hurts to admit it, there's a very good reason why game makers pick the end of the year to release most of their wares: that's when people buy the most games. Between Christmas guilt and guilty pleasures, games are a popular gift around Yuletide and it was no different this year. In fact, games had their biggest week ever over the Christmas week.

Sales for the final week of 2006 were up 10 per cent over last year and they were 30 per cent higher than the week before Christmas, retailers told MCV.

Savouring the fruits of this attention was Christmas No. 1 FIFA 07, which gave EA its 26th No. 1 of the year.

Retailers may have been excited about the extra foot traffic into their stores, but not everyone is happy. Publishers traditionally do not enjoy seeing their games selling at discounts, and those have been omnipresent in post-Christmas sales.

MCV reports that top Xbox 360 games such as Dead Rising and Splinter Cell: Double Agent were selling for under £30 and PlayStation 2 games, including Canis Canem Edit, sold for less than £20.

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

1. FIFA 07 (EA)
2. Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (Konami)
3. Need For Speed: Carbon (EA)
4. The Sims 2: Pets (EA)
5. Call of Duty 3 (Activision)
6. WWE SmackDown Vs Raw 2007 (THQ)
7. Gears of War (Microsoft)
8. Canis Canem Edit (Rockstar)
9. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo)
10. Cars (THQ)

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo