Sony is in the Zone

Capcom’s ‘Street Fighter IV’ is knocked out after round 1, only lasting one week at the top of the All Formats Chart – this week’s brand new No1 is Sony’s ‘Killzone 2’ on PS3. ‘Killzone 2’ becomes the 4th fastest selling Sony published title ever in the UK (2nd fastest on PS3 behind ‘GT5 Prologue’).

It is Sony’s first All Formats No1 for almost two years: their last All Formats No1 was at the end of April 2007 with ‘God of War 2’ on PS2. With sales down 49%, ‘Street Fighter IV’ has to make way for a second first party new entry, dropping from No1 to No3, behind Microsoft’s RTS ‘Halo Wars’ which enters at No2. It might not be anywhere near the heights of its exalted predecessor ‘Halo 3’ (selling 17.6% of Halo 3’s record breaking launch week figure), but for a console strategy game spin-off it’s top of its field, outselling the next fastest selling Xbox 360 RTS title ‘Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars’, by almost 3 to 1. Sales of ‘Wii Fit’ are down 11%, dropping from No2 to No4. In fact all the remaining Top 10 games lose sales apart from Nintendo’s ‘Professor Layton’ which jumps back into the Top 10 at No5, boosted by renewed stock.

The All Formats Top 5 is dominated this week by single format exclusives from each first party publisher with only ‘Street Fighter IV’ available on more than one format (Xbox 360 and PS3). ‘Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection’ also on Xbox 360 and PS3 and also sporting a retro appeal moves up one place to No6, sales only down 4% on its launch week. Former All Formats No1 sparring partners ‘FIFA 09’ (-24%) from EA and Activision Blizzard’s ‘Call of Duty: World at War’ (-21%) are neck and neck at No’s 7 and 8 respectively, while last week’s high flier ‘Ben 10: Alien Force’ (-29%) from D3P falls 5 places to No9, ahead of ‘Mario Kart Wii’ (-22%) at No10. The only other new release to make the All Formats Top 40 is Konami’s ‘Silent Hill: Homecoming’ at No11, getting a march on Capcom’s famous survival horror blockbuster ‘Resident Evil 5’, due for release on March 13th