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Handy remote helps Play top gaming sales

Thursday, January 17, 2008 | 05:09 PM ET

by Paul Jay, CBC News.ca

NPD Canada released its top 20 selling video games in Canada for both December and all of 2007, and once again Nintendo's Wii and DS drove sales.

Super Mario Galaxy was the top selling game in December, which isn't a surprise since the game wasn't released until November, making it a hot item for Christmas shopping. What was surprising is that the game was a hot enough seller to rank as the third-biggest seller all year, behind the Wii's Play w/ remote and the XBox 360's Halo 3.

Here are the top 20 selling video games in Canada, 2007:

  1. Play w/ remote, Wii
  2. Halo 3, 360
  3. Super Mario Galaxy, Wii
  4. Pokemon Diamond Version, NDS
  5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ wireless guitar, PS2
  6. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, 360
  7. New Super Mario Bros., NDS
  8. Guitar Hero 2 w/ wired guitar, 360
  9. Mario Party 8, Wii
  10. Brain Age: More training in minutes, NDS
  11. Pokemon Pearl Version, NDS
  12. Assasin's Creed, 360
  13. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, NDS
  14. NHL 08, 360
  15. Brain Age: Train your brain in minutes, NDS
  16. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wii
  17. NHL 08, PS2
  18. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ wireless guitar, 360
  19. Guitar Hero 2 w/ wired guitar, PS2
  20. God of War II, PS2

What's also interesting about the numbers is that while Guitar Hero III was the choice game for PS2 users, XBox 360 gamers instead chose the earlier version of the game. The reason, said NPD Group Canada director Darrell Ryce, was supply: with XBox 360 versions of GH III harder to get a hold of, XBox users had to resort to the older version.

Here are the top five selling video games in Canada for December, 2007:

  1. Super Mario Galaxy, Wii
  2. Play w/ remote, Wii
  3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, 360
  4. Assasin's Creed, 360
  5. Halo 3, 360

December's top 20 also saw the appearance of two games for the struggling PS3 console; Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (from Activision) and Assasin's Creed (from Montreal's Ubisoft), which held the 10th and 18th sports respectively.

Also adding some Canadian content; Edmonton-based Bioware's Mass Effect for the 360 was the 14th biggest seller.

What's interesting about this year was how peripherals, like the Wii's remote and Guitar Hero's wireless guitar, helped drive sales of video games. Ryce said we can likely expect more of the same in 2008 when Nintendo releases it's Wii Fit, which includes a stepping platform.

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Comments

Jordan

Winnipeg

NintenDOMINATION

Posted January 17, 2008 06:37 PM

Andrew H.

Not one thing for PS3? Not even NHL 08? wow..

Posted January 18, 2008 07:46 AM

Claudio

Windsor,Ontario

Yeah, I'm surprised NHL 08 didn't make it onto the Canadian top 5 for December. Not very surprised the PS3 was a relative no-show.

NintenDOMINATION pretty much sums it up. I remember when industry pundits were running around saying the DS was going to be crushed by PSP and laughed at how under-powered the Wii was. Oops!

Posted January 18, 2008 10:16 AM

Jeff

Winnipeg

Awesome, it's good to see that innovation and gameplay are more important to people than eye candy. Lets hope this trend continues!

Posted January 18, 2008 03:11 PM

Losfer

Dartmouth

I totally agree with Jeff. Innovation > Graphics. Go, Nintendo!

Posted January 21, 2008 03:06 PM

Jordan

Winnipeg

I agree with Jeff. Videogames are not like women and cars - looks are NOT everything with videogames.

Posted January 21, 2008 03:50 PM

Garet

Winnipeg

What's so innovative about shaking a nunchuck instead of pushing a button?

Posted January 22, 2008 09:22 AM

Keven

i own all 3 systems - nintendo, xbox and ps3 and to be honest with you i very rarely play nintendo due to its child like video game line up they have.

Posted January 22, 2008 11:06 AM

Garet

Winnipeg

Keven, why is the fact that a game is accessable to all ages a determining factor in what you play? Are you concerned about your image, and can't be seen playing "kid" games?

Posted January 22, 2008 12:46 PM

Keven

Garet, thats not the point i like some "kid's" games like Mario Party, Zelda, etc... it all comes down to my likes and dislikes. The nintendo company has lots of games for a wide age group but tend to focus more on youth, than someone being mature and craves something more complex to play in his spare time.

Posted January 22, 2008 05:26 PM

Garet

Winnipeg

I would think "someone more mature" wouldn't waste his time with toys.

Posted January 23, 2008 08:15 AM

Losfer

Dartmouth

I ONLY PLAY HARDCORE GAMES FOR MATURE GAMERS LIKE MYSELF.

Posted January 24, 2008 07:18 PM

Jason

Andrew,
PS3 hasn't yet 'done' anything spetacular yet, and to be honest, I'd rather have a PS2. PS3, to me just seems like another 'copycat' system so that i could keep up with nintendo and microsoft. I haven't heard of ONE amazing game for the PS3 that the other system hasn't. I'm anxiously awaiting for the Final Fantasy 7 remake, which i have no doubts will be an impressive remake, but for any 'special' games, i have yet to hear of anything that has been popular amoung the youth nor star-dazzling, though I'm a huge sony fan. I just hope a good original game comes out soon.

Posted January 28, 2008 11:15 AM

Andrew H.

NL

Well Jeff, I hope you like racing games, because Gran Turismo 5 might be the last exclusive game for PS3...I bought a PS2 in 2002 for Gran Theft Auto 3, and Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, but now where GTA: 3 to San Andreas (and soon IV) is also on Xbox, it hurt the PS3 and PS2 sales, pretty badly. When I go into EBgames, I look at the PS3 section, and then look over to the Xbox section (which takes up 2 sections), and Wii with 1 1/2 sections, it really does proove the 2007 top games list..

Posted January 30, 2008 12:05 PM

Anjohl

NFLD

Wii and DS are great due to the new, more intuitive control schemes. The key is the simplicity, which allows anyone to play.

That it also a problem, as Nintendo is not designing their systems for, or agressively pursuing the makers of more "traditional" games like RPG's, epic action games, etc.

My first bit of uneasiness about Nintendo came when they censored manhunt 2...it was one step forward, two steps back.

But there are some cool games coming out, Nintendo is publishing a game where you have to survive natural disasters, that looks amazing.

Posted February 7, 2008 07:31 AM

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