UK Charts: Eye Toy still top as new releases disappoint

Sony's all-conquering Eye Toy continues to blaze a trail at the top of Chart-Track's UK All Formats chart this week, but several big name new releases failed to attract punters despite an end to the summer drought.

Most notably, Eidos/Elixir's Republic got off to a disappointing start, charting at No.36 (No.7 in the PC Full Price chart) on the back of years of hype, heavy investment, repeated delays and most recently some muted reviews.

Capcom's well regarded P.N.03 also got off to an inauspicious start, failing to dent the either the Top 40 All Formats, or Top 40 All Formats Full Price charts, despite entering the GameCube chart at No.1 - illustrating just how poorly GameCube titles are performing currently.

Meanwhile a couple of recent ports to the PS2 of Xbox titles experienced mixed fortunes, with LucasArts' Indiana Jones And The Emporer's Tomb re-entering the All Formats at No.15 on the back of the PS2 release, but few were interested in Namco's PS2 and Cube ports of Dead To Rights, entering the PS2 chart at No.15 and No.19 in the Cube chart.

The most successful new release was undoubtedly SCi's release The Great Escape, which entered the chart at No.8, via a No.3 placing in the PS2 and Xbox chart.

Elsewhere, Atari will be no doubt very pleased with its PSone title Beyblade: Let It Rip shooting up the All Format listings to No.4, up from its No.28 debut. On the back of the huge TV show, some are tipping this to become one of the hot franchises for Christmas, and this game yet again proves that the PSone software market is far from dead if you release the right property.

In the remainder of the chart, EA once again cleaned up with its various budget titles, notably FIFA 2003, Medal Of Honour: Frontline and The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, which occupy the No.2, No.3 and No.5 slots respectively. A further ten titles pepper the remainder of the All Formats Top 40, illustrating again its total command of the market currently.

After the recent virus scares, Norton and Mcafee continue to do good business, with three Internet security products infiltrating the All Formats chart.

Next week is unlikely to see significant change at the top, with several niche releases coming down the pipe: look out for respectable debut positions for Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons Of WWII (PC), Otogi: Myth Of Demons (Xbox), Ghost Recon: Island Thunder (Xbox), Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure (all formats), and Chaos Legion (PS2).