Irish Christmas Charts: EA, Ubisoft, Sony, Konami on top; PS2 & PSP dominate

PSP often out ranks Xbox & 360 combined

Chart-Track’s Christmas ‘Entertainment Software’ top 20 sales chart for Ireland draw a poor picture of the performance of the Xbox, even when combined with the Xbox 360. With Sony’s ‘Buzz! The Music Quiz’ making it into the top five, and three other PlayStation exclusives in the top 20, there is little signs of the Xbox.

The reception isn’t much better when it comes to multi-format games, with Xbox rarely receiving much more then 10% of sales of any one games, and never above 20%. It’s much worse for the Gamecube, and PC formats hardly ever seeing above 5%, with GBA and DS just popping their head in around 10% in the odd game.

EA were still on top with five games in the top 20,  Need for Speed: Most Wanted at one and FIFA at two. Rival soccer game Pro Evolution Soccer 5 from Konami was at five down from three, with this year’s box-office tie-in King Kong from UbiSoft at three, both critically acclaimed. While the critically dismissed first attempt at Ireland’s national sport, Gaelic Games Football, was down to eight from five last week, after seven weeks on the chart.

The top 20 chart continues to add independent substance to Sony’s claims of the extraordinary console sales in Ireland, which are importantly backed by games sales. The company says ownership of PS and PS2 consoles per head of population is only higher in Japan. PlayStation looks to be the game brand burned into the Irish mind, and culture.

PSP and Xbox 360 were been billed as the ‘must haves’ by the press. Comparing both on the charts would be unfair as the PSP is long released. However, the PSP not only outranks the 360 with multi-format games, but also the combined percentages for the established Xbox, and the 360. 

This is even with alleged forced bundles of games with the new 360 console. One report going as far as claiming that a manager “physically restrained” a staff member from selling without a bundle. Microsoft and games sellers have mostly denied forced bundles, but when pressed retailers have admitted they are under presser. According to a retailer who spoke to Games Toaster, pre-bookings of 360 in the same shops, as well as multiply pre-bookings in the same shops and in multiply stores, have confused the demand for Xbox 360. He was confident this was widespread. The mysteries second shipment just before Christmas, that was said to be uncertain, led to consoles left on some retailers’ shelves as late as closing time Christmas Eve.

Comments

[Philip]

"PlayStation looks to be the game brand burned into the Irish mind, and culture."

so true, and shows how stupid irish people are, infatuated by brands, and "must haves" xbox is €100, and is far better for value, and games, yet people still fork out €150+ for a ps2, an elderly console, with little to offer!

[Boco]

Playstation products come with a tempting baseball cap pointing upwards at an impossible angle, so its easy to see why they are so popular.

[NCAA Football 11 Rosters]

Boco, can the products like playstation X-Box etc be commercially used on a pay per use basis?