Why does VGChartz only have a retail musing thread for North America?
Thought it might be interesting to open one for Europe as well, especially cause I'd like to share some of my experiences.

I work in the 3rd biggest eletronic stores in Holland and our shop has a HUGE videogames section where I work.
If been working there for about 2,5 months and I thought it might be interesting to share the current trends and sell through rate of a few games here in Holland. These figures also give a decent represantation of the entire country of Holland. Right now its immensely busy in November and especially now in December. Games and consoles are flying of the shelves and we are having a hard time keeping everything in stock and resupplying the store. Lets start with some hardware figures.

In the first 5 days of December, we sold about 340 current gen consoles witch are off course Wii, PS3 and 360. The split however is pretty interesting. We sold about 124 Wii's in just 5 days, and it is easily the best selling console here. However, close second is the Xbox 360 with 90 consoles sold in 5 days. Compare this to the PlayStation 3, Sony can't be happy. We sold just 24 PlayStation 3 consoles in 5 days. Bundle wise, the Motorstorm and Little Big Planet packs are the most populair on the PS3 side. Xbox 360 Pro is the most populair on the 360 side, though the Arcade and Pro seem to sell evenly well. We are one of the few shops in Holland that has a permanent Wii console stock throught the year, with a few piles in the back at all times, witch consists of about 200 Wii's total. However, during the last week of November, we were sold out on Wii's so you know the Wii is easily the most populair and best selling console now.

On the software side, there are some interesting things to notice as well. I wrote down all the exact sales numbers on all populair exclusives and multi-platform games, including PC sales. A quick rundown below:

Call of Duty World at War: Selling really well, better than I expected. The 360 version sold the most copies, 136 to be exact since it came out. The PlayStation 3 version is doing better then I expected, with 121 copies. PC version comes in third, so its selling better than the PS2 and Wii version. 41 PC copies were sold since launch day. Wii version comes in fourth, wit 32 copies followed by the PS2 version with 28 copies. Call of Duty is one of the best selling multi-platform games of this holiday, if not the best selling.

Need for Speed: Undercover: As seen in the Others sales of last week, the PS3 version is selling the best. Since it came out we sold 59 copies on PS3, followed by the 360 version with 48 copies. Surprisingly, the Wii version is selling pretty well with 26 copies. PS2 version also doing well, almost better than PC, DS and PSP combined. PS2 version sold 11 copies, followed by PC (7), PSP (3) and DS (2). Overall NFS is selling decent, though I expected a bit better.

Tomb Raider: Underworld: Bombed pretty hard, and that's even an understatement. Sold about 35 copies over all platforms, with the PS3 version selling the most easily. The split is 18 on PS3, 10 on 360, 4 on Wii, 2 on DS and 1 on PC.

Prince of Persia: Not selling that well, though it only came out a few days ago. 360 version selling twice as much as PS3 version, though in actual numbers its not that big: 6 vs 3.

Far Cry 2: Very interesting sales numbers. You would think the 360 being FPS-games concentred it would sell the most by far, but actually its the other way around. Since its launch we sold about 170 copies, with PS3 selling the most with 82 copies. 360 follows with 62 copies sold, and surprisingly the PC version is doing fairly good with 35 copies sold.

Fallout 3: Did not sell that well, probably because its not that easy accessable like Far Cry 2 of NFS. Sold 115 copies overall, with 360 doing the best by far with 59 copies. PS3 version comes in second with 43 copies and PC version doing less than I expected with 15 copies.

Saints Row 2: Expected a little better from this game, but didn't do bad or anything like that. Sold 170 copies over PS3 and 360. Xbox 360 version doing best with 104 copies, and the other 66 copies on PS3.

Grand Theft Auto IV: Selling really well again, especially with people buying new consoles. Its still one of our best selling games this year. Sold about 1600 copies over PS3 and Xbox 360, with the PC version just launched a few days ago. Since april 2008 the Xbox 360 version sold the most, though the difference with the PS3 version is only 17 copies. 710 copies on Xbox 360, 693 on PS3. PC version doing fairly good to since its launch 5 days ago. Sold 37 copies through this day.

Now over to the exclusive games on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.

Gears of War 2: Doing very good, easily best selling exclusive on Xbox 360. Sold 201 copies in total, 177 of the regular and 24 special editions. Also had the 60GB bundle version with Gears of War 2. Got a shipment of 75 bundles, and we sold all of those.

Fable 2: Doing very well too, sold 156 copies since launch. Also sellin good with new console owners.

Lips: Selling way better than everyone expected. Got a shipment of 75 copies on november 20th, sold 54 of those since then. Selling really good with female 360 owners. Also selling way better then Singstar on PS3 AND PS2.

Banjo: Bombed as I expected. What a shame a game like this doesn't get the sales it deserves. Only sold 13 copies since launch.

Little Big Planet: Falling short of everyones expectations. Sold 96 copies since launch, though we sold a lot of copies in the last few weeks because of Sony's promotion free game action. Sony Europe is running a promotional thing right now where everyone who buys a PS3, can pick a free Sony game witch are LBP, Motorstorm 2, Resistance, Singstar and Buzz.

Resistance 2: Only got this game since Monday and sold 24 copies since then. Some story as above, sold lot free copies.

Motorstorm 2: Similar to LBP and Resistance 2, though its selling like crap. Only 19 copies sold.

Wii Music: Sold out. Only got a shipment of 45 copies, witch sold out in about a week or two. Haven't gotten any new shipment since then.

Wii Fit: DAMN. This thing is HUGE. Everyone seems to ask for it and its sold out everywhere. Throughtout november and december its been simply sold out the entire time. Got a shipment of 110 Wii Fit's last week. 35 of those were reservations. The rest sold out in about two days. Already have 5 new reservations since it sold out again. Sold over 600 Wii Fit's since it came out.

Mario Kart Wii: Sold out. Got a shipment of 25 copies last week but sold out instantly. Sold about 700 copies since launch.

World of Warcraft Wrath of the Litch King: You'd think PC games would sell like crap because of the easy piracy, but its not. WoW is by far the most populair, with The Sims as close second. Sold over 150 copies of the new expansion since launch, mostly bought by emo/fat/long haired dudes.

There, thats about it from what I wrote down. This gives a decent represantation of the current situation in Holland.
If you'd like to know something about how well a game or console is selling or anything like that, let my know.
Would do think of the sales figures?

Nobody interested?

thnx, maybe others will put other interesting info like you too, just wait

 Just for fun, can't you pretend you work in one of those "coffee shops" instead? I'd like to hear those kind of retail musings.

On a serious side, looks like the 360 has a solid install base over in Holland. If the PS3 is still ahead of the 360 there, it can't be by much and might not be for long.

very interesting. I am impressed with the detail. What you are saying seems to line up with the VGC numbers.

Well done, keep it updated.

Also, and about WiiMusic, is it selling better than you expected?

Good job

Always the coffeeshop reference when somebody mentions Holland. Too bad the goverment wants to close all coffee shops in Holland, but I don't think thats such a good idea cause you'll probably get a lot of angree junkies + tourism will pretty much die then :P

@ Bigjon: When it first came out, the buzz around the game wasn't all that great. A few people noticed it and bought it instantly, but in the first week we only sold like 10 copies. Then the second week, lots of people started buying Wii Music probably because there were a lot of Wii Music TV spots, even on the more popular, regular TV channels, not just the TV channels for younger people. In that second week we sold all of our copies pretty fast. I think Wii Music is the same as all the other Nintendo Wii games: not that big in the first weeks, but the longer its in store, the more buzz and sales the games gets.

Short update on Left 4 Dead: not selling that great. Sold about 25 copies on Xbox 360 and PC. 18 on Xbox 360 and 7 on PC. Though about 6 of those sold on Xbox 360 was from our own personel, including myself.

Nice info!

where do you live in N-brabant? ^^

You better be for PSV!

Thanks!
I live in Boxtel and work in Tilburg.

And no way, AJAX all the way baby.

Tonight, PSV - Liverpool 0-3 ;)

Retail musing 1: Why does Saturn sell games on average for 5 Euros more than Kaufhof?

Why does no one notice?