UK Charts: FIFA 2005 back on top
Konami's challenger PES4 losing out overall, but still on top in the PS2 chart.
Electronic Arts' FIFA Football 2005 is back on top of the UK all-formats software chart this week, knocking rival football title Pro Evolution Soccer 4 into second place as both games saw a significant sales decline.
However, taking the PS2 sales of both titles alone, Konami's PES4 is still outselling its rival and holds on to the top of the PS2 chart this week, with a sales boost yet to come from the launch of the Live-enabled Xbox version next month.
It's been an uncharacteristically quiet week for new releases, with Codemasters' LMA Manager 2005 the only new game to enter the top ten - beating off competition in the football management genre from EA's Total Club Manager 2005, which fails to chart.
Outside of the top ten, only Activision's X-Men Legends makes it into the top 40 as a new release, debuting at number 18. The publisher is continuing one of its strongest ever periods at UK retail with three titles now in the top ten - Tony Hawks Underground 2 at number three, Star Wars Battlefront at up four places to number four and Shark Tale also up four places at number eight.
That puts it level with Electronic Arts, which aside from FIFA at number one also has The Sims 2 at number five and Burnout 3 at number six, and ahead of Nintendo, which has two titles in the top ten - Pokemon Fire Red and Pokemon Leaf Green, at numbers nine and ten respectively.
The top ranked Xbox title is FIFA, while second place in the Xbox chart is Fable - down eight places to number 12, and the best-selling Cube game of the week was Donkey Konga, down seven places to number 24. Missing from the ranking this week, meanwhile, are the likes of SEGA SuperStars, Tribes Vengeance, Vietcong: Purple Haze and World Rally Championship 4,
Next week, of course, sees something of a shoe-in to the number one spot, as Rockstar launches Grand Theft Auto San Andreas on PS2. Also competing for your attention will be Sly 2: Band of Thieves (Sony, PS2), the Xbox and PS2 versions of Total Club Manager 2005 (EA), the innovative Gametrak: Dark Wind (PS2) and Capcom's quirky Under The Skin (PS2) - although how they'll stand up in the face of the mighty GTA onslaught remains to be seen.