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Sequels Stalk the UK Charts For those of you whose New Year's hangovers still linger, don't worry. You're not suffering from double vision. Anyone could be forgiven for the sense of déjà-vu that this year's Christmas charts create. The traditional predictability of the Yuletide charts has reached a surreal level. In the table below you see the top five selling games on the PlayStation, PC, and N64, as well as a list of the top sellers across all formats, for the Christmas week in the UK. (Note that the data from other European countries takes longer to compile, but traditionally follows broadly the same results.) Put side-by-side with Christmas 1997, these two charts are an entertaining game of "spot the difference." Out of all four lists, there are only five games that aren't sequels of some kind. Three of these titles reside from the Nintendo 64 chart, and one of them is a screen saver for the PC. Other entertainment industries might flush with embarrassment if faced with similar statistics. Unfortunately for the games industry, this sort of unoriginality is simply par for the course at Christmas. What is truly disturbing about this year, though, is the fact that in almost every case the sequels from last year were replaced this year with further sequels, often in exactly the same chart position. The unholy trinity of FIFA, Tomb Raider, and Crash Bandicoot seem to have their spots on the charts assured until doomsday. What's more, Codemasters' first TOCA game almost managed to secure the same chart position two years running (albeit this year as a budget title). What the significance of this? On the face of it, it appears that the public simply wants an identifiable product brand that's bland enough in content and execution so that it doesn't frighten granny. Then again, the public was hardly given much of a selection of games this year. Of all the hundreds of new releases during the Christmas period, many were sequels (or, alternatively, some kind of licensed product). In particular, I'd like to single out the PlayStation, which seems only to offer mountains of derivative games, all targeting to the lowest common denominator in the public. The other major question I find myself asking is, "what happens when a franchise runs out of steam?". While sports titles are largely immune to this problem, it's clear that Tomb Raider, for example, is running out of steam. At some point in the future, when Eidos discovers that Tomb Raider VI is economically unviable, what have they left? Their seminal game character has been all used up and the company is left with no big name blockbuster titles for the next Christmas. This will happen to Eidos at some point, and to other franchises as well, yet publishers and developers do little to avoid or combat this situation.
Zelda's appearance at the number four slot in the "All Formats" chart is impressive. However, one can't help but wonder what would have happened if the game was released on time and at sufficient quantities to satisfy consumer demand for the game. Even so, the game has already become the fastest selling title of all time in the U.K., with 170,000 units sold in just nine days (beating Tomb Raider II's previous record by 40,000 units). Nintendo has forecasted that it will sell five million copies worldwide by the end of this month. The success of Acclaim's Turok 2 should not be overlooked. This title, like Zelda, suffered stock shortages upon its release and didn't make any appearance in the U.K. until December18th. Despite this, however, it managed to make it to the number five position in the "All Formats" chart. Due to the absence of Konami's Metal Gear Solid in Europe this Christmas, the PlayStation conceded some of its momentum to the N64. With a distinct lack of any other large scale "event" releases on the PlayStation horizon, the N64 has a chance to get back some much-needed street cred and market share over the next few months. If Nintendo can get titles like Perfect Dark, Banjo-Tooie, Donkey Kong 64 out on time, developers for other platforms will be forced to come up with some compelling competition. Speaking of Donkey Kong 64, Rare executives were rather surprised to find out, upon their return to offices after the New Year, that Nintendo had officially announced the existence of this super-secret project. Although only a single screen shot and an extremely vague game description were revealed, Rare was rumored to be none too pleased that it wasn't informed of Nintendo's plans. As Rare points out though, the game (and indeed the central character), is technically the property of Nintendo, and thus so is the marketing. Rare's spokesperson would only comment that the company was "surprised" to see the announcement on Nintendo's website.
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