Games pushed out from a busy Q4 2009 populated NPD Group's January top 20 U.S. retail games chart, with games including MAG, Darksiders, and Bayonetta making the list.
Numerous publishers last year decided to move certain high-profile titles from calendar Q4 2009 to Q1 2010, in order to avoid competing against holiday titles such as the blockbuster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
NPD Group's U.S. top 20 retail list for January, made available to Gamasutra Friday morning, reflected publishers' decisions to wait, as seven games in the top 20 for the month were high-budget January releases.
January's top 10, revealed yesterday, showed the January Xbox 360 release Mass Effect 2 from Electronic Arts at number two, with two other January SKUs, the Xbox 360 versions of EA's Army of Two: The 40th Day and THQ's Darksiders, making the top 10.
But 11-20 show four more January SKUs cracking the top 20: the PS3 version of Army of Two: The 40th Day and THQ's Darksiders, Sony's PS3-exclusive MAG, and the Xbox 360 version of Sega and Platinum Games' highly-rated action game, Bayonetta.
The Nintendo Wii was home to the most titles in the top 20 with seven SKUs, matching December. Xbox 360 and PS3 both had five games in the top 10, while the DS had three games.
Nintendo of America also published the most top 20 games with eight total. EA followed with four, Activision Blizzard, THQ, and Sony with two, and Ubisoft and Sega with one title each.
Below are the top 20 charts for January 2010, as provided by NPD Group:
I too root for Bayonetta these cult like games have a place in the industry . We need more creative innovative fun titles not ones that adhere to certain game design "must-haves" to make money as what seems is the only purpose.
