The powers and resources of the NPD, Enterbrain, and GfK Chart-Track have all come together and the results are in - Dragon Quest IX dominated the global sales charts spanning over three months ending September of this year. What's more amazing is that the DS-exclusive title has only been released in Japan. See how the others fared.

No significant change in sales, huh, EEDAR? Well, take that! GamesIndustry reports that in the UK, the Xbox 360 Elite scored a positive 43% increase in their sales during the bank holiday weekend. Also, there's news on the Elite's price drop for the Asia-Pacific region. All in the full article.

This is intriguing math. Gfk-ChartTrack of UK has released the data for console sales in the region up to June 27, 2009 and it shows that there is a stellar 24 million installed base in the UK to date, with 8.4 million contributing to that number in the past 12 months.

Numbers are in, and Activision has more than a few reasons to be proud about its third quarter of fiscal 2008 financial report. Thanks to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock,  Activision experienced substantial growth in revenue and it took top honors in software sales. More details at the full article.

If the Nintendo DS and Wii nabbed the prestigious title for the best gaming platforms for 2007, can you guess what was the best software title for the previous year? Activision gives us the answer by announcing that its best-selling Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) was considered the best software title in units worldwide for 2007 with over seven million units sold.

For more information on this story, check out the full article!

Here's a little trivia for you: if you've ever wondered what gamers from other parts of the world are playing the most, GfK International, the all-encompassing umbrella of market research divisions like Gfk Australia, has sent in recently updated lists of top ten games in Spain and Germany.

First up is Nintendo DS-lovin' Spain, whose top four games all cater to Nintendo's handheld. That's Pokemon: Diamond, THQ's Ratatouille, Dr. Kawashima's More Brain Training, and Pokemon: Pearl in order from first to fourth. The top ten games list is half-occupied by Nintendo DS titles, while three of the five games are published by Nintendo.

In the German side, 2K Games' BioShock rules the charts, with the PC version (no surprise there) taking top spot. The Xbox 360 version sits just outside of the top five at number six. In similar fashion to Spain, Germany also revels in Nintendo DS games, with both Pokemon titles noted (Diamond still leads Pearl), plus two Nintendo Wii titles to boot. Blizzard's World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade joins BioShock as the only two PC games to penetrate the Nintendo-dominated charts.

Read the full article for a quick list of the top ten games in Germany and Spain.

Microsoft is going head-to-head with the Wii in Australia as it cuts down the price of the Core console down to AU$ 399.95 (US$ 325) - the same price as the Wii. The Xbox 360 Pro was also cut down from AU$ 649 (US$ 528) to AU$ 579.95 (US$ 472).

 

The price cut may be harmful to Sony, after the company announced that Australia's PlayStation 3 starter packs will no longer be available once supplies run out. However, the slash is definitely a challenge targeted at the Nintendo Wii.

Australia's Xbox director David Mclean says, "Since launch we've always had a fairly deliberate strategy to secure the hardcore gamers first ... but now that we've done that job it's time to expand the market."

Daniel Morse, game analyst at GfK also said, "You get a true next-generation device for the same price as the Wii and on top of that you can play Halo." The price cut may be considered as good timing for Microsoft, because a day before the event, Nintendo Australia announced that there was no plans for a price cut for the Wii.

Some casual games that the Xbox has lined up are Guitar Hero III: Rock Legends, Rock Band and Dance Dance Revolution Universe. Mclean furthers the challenge against the Wii and says, "We are starting to see some of those real social gaming experiences and with the console at the right price point it should enable us to be somewhat more competitive."

Want to see how games fare in the land down under? Games Industry GfK Australia gives you the skinny on what games wins the Aussie's hearts - and wallets - with its list of Australia's top-selling games for the first half of this year. In this list not Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo wins the top spot, as it is now owned by an expansion of the epic online game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

The list clearly shows that the perennial PS2 is still going strong down under, with about 5 entries in the charts, including Final Fantasy XII. Sony snagged the half of the top ten slots, and for a country which gets the PS3 at a very expensive price (estimated to be about US$ 900), two games still managed to snag the 6th and 7th slots: Resistance Fall of Man and MotorStorm, respectively.

Nintendo, however, is the overall winner in dominating the entire chart with about 8 games making it into the Top 20. It's cute doggie simulation, Nintendogs: Dachshund and Friends, also found a place in Aussie's hearts and was able to hang on the 20th spot in the list.

As for Microsoft, it only had one entry in the whole chart: Gears of War, which landed on the 14th spot.

The winning Burning Crusade expansion also propelled sales of World of Warcraft, with the original game landing in a very comfortable 5th place.
Check out the numbers:

1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, PC
2. Final Fantasy XII, PS2
3. Pokemon Diamond, Nintendo DS
4. God of War 2, PS2
5. World of Warcraft, PC
6. Resistance: Fall of Man, PS3
7. MotorStorm, PS3
8. Nintendogs: Dalmatian and Friends, Nintendo DS
9. Cricket 07, PS2
10. The Sims 2: Seasons, PC
11. Guitar Hero 2 bundle, PS2
12. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Nintendo Wii
13. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, Nintendo DS
14. Gears of War, Xbox 360
15. Pokemon Pearl, Nintendo DS
16. SingStar Rocks! bundle, PS2
17. The Sims 2: Pets, PC
18. Nintendogs: Labrador and Friends, Nintendo DS
19. New Super Mario Bros., Nintendo DS
20. Nintendogs: Dachshund and Friends, Nintendo DS

The HD-DVD group has earlier announced positive signs coming from the European front of the high-definition format war where it says that its stand-alone HD-DVD players are outselling Sony's Blu-ray players on a three-to-one scale.

The data, the group says, comes from research firm GfK and covers countries Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, and Germany. The numbers included all current HD-DVD players stacked up against players outside of the Sony PlayStation 3 console which is also capable of playing Blu-ray movies.

The group, however, made it clear that Blu-ray discs are still outselling HD-DVDs in the same region and declined to comment on whether or not the format is losing money in the United States and other markets around the world.

Comparisons have already been drawn between this format war and the rivalry between the Betamax and the VHS formats from about three decades ago. Others have likened it to Netscape versus the Internet Explorer from back in the mid-90's.

The HD-DVD format has been in Europe significantly longer than Blu-ray. Its technology was developed by Toshiba and is capable of storing more data than its predecessor, the DVD format. It can also play videos at a higher resolution and is touted to have better audio output than recent storage media.

The Blu-ray camp is led by Sony and is backed by other biggies such as Apple and Samsung. It also plays HD videos but can store information on a bigger level and is said to sport more features. The price point for Blu-ray, however, is steeper than that of its sole rival.

And back in the industry news, UK's very own game market is experiencing a significant year-on-year growth, reports Chart Track, as the statistics rolling in from the hardware and software sales monitors highlight a solid 42% rise for just the first half of 2007 alone.

 

Other discoveries in the industry's wake include a 25% increase in unit sales at the hardware front from 2006's first half, leading to a growth of 87% across the board in total console hardware revenue. Hardware volumes have also been noted to jump up 51% year-on-year.

In the software side, the games are also doing quite nicely, after indications of a 19% increase in unit sales have been observed. Software sales revenue has done fairly well, hitting the 17% mark in rise. Chart Track believes that the trend could go on throughout the year, even though the trend wasn't forecasted by the company in the first place. "We are on track for the biggest year ever in the UK," concluded Chart Track director Dorian Bloch.

Australia, a fellow PAL region, had also reported that data retrieved from GfK noted a good trend for the local industry's 2006 performance, while the NPD group has eyed a possible good year for North America, despite forecasts of decline in the local PC gaming industry.

China and Taiwan had experienced a good fiscal performance last year also, though local forecasts place the Asian industry as the perfect complement to the console industry with the rise of casual, MMO, and PC gaming in the Eastern hemisphere. More updates on the industry as we get them.