Ubisoft and Namco-Bandai welcome us back to the stage of history, ensuring that “the soul still burns” as ‘SoulCalibur IV’ debuts this week at No1 in the All Formats Chart.
It is the first All Formats No1 for the SoulCalibur franchise since ‘SoulCalibur II’ (GC, PS2 and Xbox) reached the summit for one week, back in September 2003. It has been almost 3 years since ‘SoulCalibur III’ was launched, only on PS2. Released on Xbox 360 and PS3 the long-anticipated sequel is the fastest selling in the franchise with the PS3 version outselling it’s PS2 predecessor’s launch week by more than 3 to 1. It is the fastest selling traditional beat-em up game to be launched on either PS3 or Xbox 360 (56% of sales were on Microsoft’s format) and marks a mini-revival for the genre after the recent success of Nintendo’s ‘Super Smash Bros. Brawl’ on Wii. Nintendo however have put up a good fight; despite dropping down to No2, ‘Wii Fit’ sales are up 35% on last week and sales of ‘Mario Kart Wii’, a non-mover at No3, are up 25%.
THQ’s ‘Wall-E’ drops 2 places to No4 – sales are slowing 3 weeks after the release of the film. THQ however can celebrate a strong showing from the hardware-bundled ‘Big Beach Sports’, up from No10 to No5, while former No1 ‘Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures’ moves in the opposite direction down from No5 to No10.