WOW Dominates PC Games Chart

PC game sales for the week ending April 18 are in, showing that the WOW expansion World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King was the top selling item. But the big surprise for the week is Gas Power Games’ Demigod debuting at #3 - right behind The Sims 2 Double Deluxe. Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor came in at number 4, while Empire: Total War rounded out the top five.

EA had 4 titles in this week’s top ten, followed by Blizzard Entertainment with 3 titles and the rest filled out by single titles from THQ, Sega, and Stardock. As always, these are retail numbers and do not include digital distribution sales. Full list below:

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (Blizzard Entertainment, Activision)
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe (EA, Maxis)
3. Demigod (Gas Powered Games, Stardock)
4. Company Of Heroes: Tales Of Valor (Relic Entertainment, THQ)
5. Empire: Total War (The Creative Assembly, Sega)
6. Left 4 Dead (Valve Software, EA)
7. World Of Warcraft Battle Chest (Blizzard Entertainment, Activision)
8. World Of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, Activision)
9. The Sims 2: Apartment Life (EA, Maxis)
10. Spore (EA, Maxis)

EA, Activision Dominate Jan. PC Charts

NPD Group retail numbers are in for January 2008, and while we don’t have a head count for the number of units sold, it appears that Activision and Electronic Arts continue to dominate the top twenty in North America. Activision had 9 of the top twenty games in January with various The Sims 2 and Spore products, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 - and Left 4 Dead which it distributes for Valve Software.

Activision had six titles on January’s charts including a number of World of Warcraft products, Call Of Duty: World At War and the StarCraft Battle Chest.

Bethesda’s Fallout 3 managed to break in to the top ten, and Take-Two’s Civilization IV landed at number twelve. the rest of the top twenty was comprised of budget titles like PopCap’s Bejeweled Twist, Masque Publishing’s IGT Slots: Little Green Men, and Phantom EFX’s Reel Deal Slots BlackBeard’s Revenge. Full list after the jump

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Activision Tops in 2008

 Activision Blizzard posted a net loss for the fourth quarter, but the good news is that most of it was due to accounting rules for deferred revenue. The company did manage to beat the street’s expectations on sales of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Call of Duty: World at War, which were strong performers during the Christmas shopping season. For the quarter that ended on Dec. 31, 2008, Activision reported a net loss of $72 million, compared to earnings of $86 million, for the same period a year ago.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said during the earnings call that followed  that 2008 was the company’s 17th consecutive year of growth and that operating income was up 20 percent from the previous year.  Activision ended the year with $3 billion in cash and no debt.

The company also said that it would only be introducing three new original IPs in 2009:  Raven’s first-person shooter Singularity, an unnamed racing game from Bizarre Creations and Prototype. The rest of the company’s catalog will consist of familiar brands like Guitar Hero, and the next Call of Duty game. The company said that 2009 won’t see a new James Bond game - with talk of this new game being some type of driving - shooting game. Finally it was revealed that Blizzard will release at one title this year, though what it will be was not revealed.

EA, Activision Dominate PC Charts

According to numbers from NPD Group for the week ending Jan. 24, The Sims 2 Double Deluxe was the top selling PC game in North America. More importantly Electronic Arts and Activision dominated the week’s charts, with only Bethesda’s Fallout 3 and 2K Games’ Civilization IV. EA had four titles on the charts, while Activision had four -0 three of which were World of Warcraft SKU’s. The complete list after the jump, along with digital sales numbers from Direct2Drive and Steam:

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The Week Ahead

This week will see many highly anticipated games, as they like to see in the press releases. Of course, there will also be a lot of highly ignored releases this week that are geared towards casual gamers and tweens - but i’ve omitted most of those from the list below. so what are this week’s big releases. The biggest is the second expansion pack to World of Warcraft - World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. I suspect our fearless leader will be standing in line at Midnight somewhere in Florida so he can get in the action extra early. My prediction: MIA for the rest of the week beginning Nov 14..

Other big titles this week include Call of Duty: World at War, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, the new Pokémon Ranger DS title, and Mirror’s Edge. Honestly, i’m really only excited about the new Call of Duty but I have my doubts about this non-Infinity ward developed shooter. Animal Crossing and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe hit at the very tail end of the week (or the beginning of next week depending on how much importance you place on Sunday’s place in your weekly calendar).

While not every game on the list is a huge title there’s some other interesting releases being rolled out. Atlus’ Eternal Poison slides onto the PS2, Ascaron’s Sacred 2 hits the PC, FaceBreaker K.O. Party lands on the Wii, Pro Evolution Soccer hits multiple platforms. Full schedule after the break. For those of you looking for the new SmackDown vs. RAW game - it’s at retail right now.

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Wrath of the Lich King Gold

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has gone gold, according to word over the weekend from our very own John Keefer - who has survived the annual BlizzCon event and is now safely at home licking his wounds. In preparation for the promising expansion pack, Blizzard will roll out the 3.0.2 patch to servers tomorrow. All players will have talent points reimbursed for reallocation, based on the new talent trees, among other changes.

Get ready for lines at any store that starts selling at midnight on the November 13th. For more info on the patch can be found at www.worldofwarcraft.com and for more info on the expansion, visit Blizzard’s official site.

BlizzCon 2008 Opens Oct. 10

Blizzard Entertainment’s annual two-day lovefest - BlizzCon - begins on Friday, October 10, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The convention celebrates Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo game universes - and the fans that love these franchises. Attendees of the show (which is sold out) will be able to play the latest versions of Blizzard Entertainment’s games as well as speak with developers in special panels, participate in tournaments and contests, and meet with fellow gamers and friends.

Mediocre comedian Jay Mohr will host the live contests this year, and the show will close on Saturday evening with an epic concert featuring comedian Patton Oswalt, Blizzard’s own Warcraft-themed metal band Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, and Video Games Live, who will be performing special orchestral arrangements of music from Blizzard games.

For those unable to attend, DIRECTV will be broadcasting the convention live as a pay-per-view event. Visit www.blizzard.com/blizzcon/dtv.