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New titles fail to lift games retail FEBRUARY CHARTS


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There was a spate of new releases in February, but they couldn’t prevent another month of severe declines for the UK games market. Christopher Dring checks out who performed best in a difficult month for retail


THIS MONTH


SOFTWARE MARKET SHARE BY COMPANY (UNITS) 11 –


LAST MONTH


22 – 33 – 44 –


Electronic Arts U bisoft


Nintendo Activision Blizzard


56  THQ 67  Sega


716  Square Enix Europe 812  Sony


913  Take-Two 10 22  Konami


15.5% 10.6% 7.2% 6.3% 6.0% 5.5% 5.1% 4.8% 3.7% 3.5%


The continued performance of Battlefieldand FIFAkeeps EA at the top this month, not to mention the moderate success of its new IP, Kingdoms of Amalur. In fact, the top of the publisher rankings remain unchanged, with Ubi and Nintendo at No.2 and No.3 respectively.


THIS MONTH


SOFTWARE MARKET SHARE BY COMPANY (VALUE) 11 –


LAST MONTH


22 – 33 –


Electronic Arts Ubisoft


Nintendo


420  Square Enix Europe 57  THQ


64  Activision Blizzard


17.2% 8.3% 8.2% 7.1% 7.0% 6.8%


711  Sony Computer Entertainment 5.3% 89  Sega 921  Konami 10 6  Bethesda


4.8% 4.5% 3.9%


The biggest mover was Square Enix, up 16 places in terms of software value. The publisher’s Final Fantasy XIII-2was the No.1 game of the month. New titles from Konami (Metal Gear Solid HD), Sega (Mario & Sonic 2012on 3DS), THQ (UFC 3) and Sony (Vita line- up) had a positive impact on those firms’ market share.


UP Square Enix shot up in DOWN


Software sales fell 29 per cent year- on-year


the publisher rankings thanks to Final Fantasy


INDIVIDUAL FORMATS TOP 10S


PS3 – FULL PRICE 1


Final Fantasy XIII-2


2 Metal Gear Solid HD Collection 3 Battlefield 3


Assassin’s Creed: Revelations 8 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 9 Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception 10 Soul Calibur V


4 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 5 UFC Undisputed 3 6 FIFA 12 7


www.mcvuk.com


Square Enix Konami


Electronic Arts Activision THQ


Electronic Arts Ubisoft


Bethesda Sony


Namco


XBOX 360 – FULL PRICE 1


Final Fantasy XIII-2


2 Metal Gear Solid HD Collection 3 Battlefield 3 4 FIFA 12


5 UFC Undisputed 3


8 Kingdoms of Amalur 9 The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim 10 Assassin’s Creed: Revelations


Square Enix Konami


Electronic Arts Electronic Arts THQ


6 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 7 The Darkness II


Activision 2K Games


Electronic Arts Bethesda Ubisoft


WII – FULL PRICE 1 Just Dance 3


2 Mario & Sonic 2012 Olympic Games 3 Zumba Fitness 4 Zumba Fitness 2


5 Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure 6 Mario Kart Wii 7 Wii Party


8 The Last Story 9 FIFA 12


10 New Super Mario Bros. Wii


Ubisoft Sega


505 Games 505 Games Activision Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo


Electronic Arts Nintendo


PC – FULL PRICE 1 Football Manager 2012


Sega


2 Star Wars: The Old Republic Electronic Arts 3 The Sims 3: Pets 4 The Sims 3


5 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 6 Battlefield 3


7 Kingdoms of Amalur 8 The Sims 3: Generations 9 The Sims 3: Late Night 10 FIFA Manager 12


Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Bethesda


Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Electronic Arts


March 16h 2012 27 UP


There’s an influx of new


releases in the charts, well up over January


£55m


The amount of money retail made from software last month, down almost 25% year- on-year


5.4%


Vita’s share of the software market value last month


THIS MONTH


SOFTWARE MARKET SHARE BY FORMAT (UNITS) 11 –


LAST MONTH Xbox 360


22 – 33 – 44 – 55 – 66 – 7– –


PlayStation 3 Nintendo Wii PC


Nintendo DS Nintendo 3DS PS Vita


87  Sony PSP 98  PlayStation 2


30.8% 23.7% 13.9% 10.9% 10.3% 5.2% 4.1% 1%


0.1%


Another month of dominance for Xbox 360. Multi- format games – of which there were quite a few this month – continue to perform best on Microsoft’s platform. Nintendo’s trinity of consoles – Wii, DS and 3DS – all dropped software market share month-on-month, although there were little in the form of new releases for these platforms.


THIS MONTH


SOFTWARE MARKET SHARE BY FORMAT (VALUE) 11 –


LAST MONTH Xbox 360


22 – 33 – 44 – 55 – 66 – 7– –


PlayStation 3 Wii


Nintendo DS Nintendo 3DS PC


PS Vita 8–  PSP


35.4% 27.3% 12.1% 7.1% 6.3% 5.9% 5.4% 0.5%


Whereas 360’s software market share is unchanged over January, PS3 is up month-on-month. February also saw the arrival of Vita. The data here only takes into account three days of the console’s life (and only factors in physical games sales), but Vita software accounted for four per cent of all games sold and 5.4 per cent of software value last month. The higher priced Vita games – Unchartedand FIFA– sold best.


DOWN


PSP and PS2 drop following the arrival of Vita


UP Konami’s market share


rose on the back of Metal Gear Solid HD


DOWN


All three Nintendo platforms lost market share slightly


UP PS3


market share rose month-on- month


14 The chart


position of the best selling Vita game


Uncharted: Golden Abyss


9


A slew of new releases are in the charts this month. In


January there was just one new game


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