UK Charts: Another week at the top for the Matrix
Consumers show little enthusiasm for red pill.
Atari's Enter The Matrix is still the best selling game in the UK this week, marking its sixth week at number one and setting it well on its way to being one of the biggest selling games of the year.
However, the massive franchise may be nearing the end of its run at the top, as this week saw it displaced from the number one slots on every major platform. Cumulative sales kept it on top of the All-Formats chart, but the Matrix hype in general is dying down following the release of the movie.
Enter the Matrix was number two on the PS2 charts this week, displaced from the top by online title SOCOM: US Navy SEALs. It managed number four on Xbox, trailing new releases Brute Force, Soldier of Fortune II and Midnight Club II, and number three on GameCube after new release Wario World and Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.
The PC has been the weakest performing platform for Enter the Matrix so far - no doubt not helped by being generally considered the weakest version of an already limp game - and this week it just makes it into the top ten, behind Codemasters' Colin McRae Rally 3 at number nine.
Elsewhere this week, there's a good debut for Microsoft's big new release Brute Force, which manages a respectable placing at number four, and Rockstar's Midnight Club II climbs nine places back up to number six thanks to an Xbox release as well. The other big Xbox release of the week, Soldier of Fortune II, arrives at number 11.
Nintendo however will be disappointed with the shockingly poor showing for its big title this week - and one of its few major titles for the entire summer - as Wario World makes a weak debut at number 32 in the All-Formats chart, despite topping the GameCube chart.
Other new releases are Activision's Star Trek: Elite Force II, which rolls in at number 13, and Empire's Starsky and Hutch, which has a decent debut at number 15. Conspicuous by its absence is Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution, which isn't to be found either in the top 40 or in the PS2 top 20 - proof, if any was needed, of the madness of releasing a slightly tweaked version of a months-old game at full price.