UK Charts: SCi wins Vietnam battle as new Conflict title debuts on top
Best-ever first week for Pivotal's Conflict series.
British publisher SCi has emerged as the victor in the battle of the Vietnam-themed titles at UK retail last week, as Conflict: Vietnam took the top spot in the charts ahead of Eidos' Shellshock: Nam '67.
Conflict: Vietnam enjoyed the strongest first-week debut ever for a title in the Conflict series on PS2, with sales of that SKU of the game accounting for some 63 per cent of sales of the Pivotal Games developed title.
Eidos' Shellshock: Nam '67, which is the last multiplatform title to be created by Guerrilla Games before they signed an exclusivity deal with Sony, trails Conflict: Vietnam but still had a strong launch, coming in at number two in the chart.
There's one other new release in the top ten this week, with Codemasters' Second Sight, developed by TimeSplitters creators Free Radical Design, in at number eight, while further down the chart, Nintendo's Wario Ware, Inc: Mega Party Game$ debuts at number 20.
Last week's number one, Sony's Athens 2004, falls four places this week to number five, and will presumably plummet out of the top 40 now that the Olympic Games have come to a close, while another former number one, Doom 3, drops seven places to number ten.
Vivendi's Platinum release of The Simpsons: Hit & Run is performing extremely well, however, and climbs five places this week to number four. Including The Simpsons, there are three budget titles in the top ten - with EA's Need for Speed Underground at number seven, and FIFA 2004 at number nine.
Missing in action this week is Capcom's Crimson Sea 2, which is nowhere to be found in any of the charts, along with a slew of Megaman handheld titles, also from Capcom, and Jaleco's cross-platform World Championship Pool 2004.
Next week, meanwhile, will see the launch of EA's magnificent Burnout 3, which seems like a shoe-in for the number one spot. It's a quiet week aside from that, but also potentially bothering the top 40 ranking are Midway's NBA Ballers, SCEE's DJ - Decks & FX, and the PC and Xbox versions of America's 10 Most Wanted.