UK Charts: First Bond number one for EA

EA continued its reign at the top of the chart this week, with the US giantâs James Bond 007: Everything Or Nothing making its debut at the top of the UK All Formats chart in its first week on sale, as well as claiming top slot in the PS2, Xbox and GameCube chart.

Consequently, Square-Enixâs Final Fantasy X-2 (also published in Europe by EA) drops to number two after just one week at the top, while Segaâs Sonic Heroes drops another place to number three. Norton Internet Security moved up to number four while Need For Speed: Underground dropped to number five.

Elsewhere in the chart, Empire enjoyed the second highest new entry at number 25 with its TV advertised Bad Boys II (number 14 — PS2, number 15 — Xbox), while Ubisoftâs critically revered title Beyond Good & Evil made a long overdue entry into the UK All Formats at number 36, on the back of its Xbox and GameCube release (making number nine and number six respectively in those single format charts).

Talking of Ubi, its even more impressive Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time moved up a further place to number seven, with the Xbox version moving up to number two, while the Cube version remains at number three in their respective single-format charts.

In what is a fairly lively chart for once, Disney saw Finding Nemo shoot back up to number 11 on the back of the DVD release of the movie, while Midway scored the surprise hit of the year with its Arcade Treasures compilation, which moved up 12 places to number 16 on the All Formats, and up to number one on the budget chart (although curiously only number five on the PS2 budget chart according to ChartTrack), proving that thereâs life in your old back catalogue at the right price.

Less impressively, THQ chalked up a quiet start for its Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, which debuted at a lowly number 31 in the Full Price Top 40, while Namco wonât be too happy with the number 39 appearance of Kill Switch in the same listing.

But there were plenty of others in the MIA category this week, with Segaâs Puyo Pop Fever and Sonic Battle (number six, GBA), and LucasArtsâ pair of Armed And Dangerous and Wrath Unleashed were nowhere to be seen, while Acclaimâs Urban Freestyle Soccer also failed to excite gamers. Eidos will also be desperately disappointed to see Whiplash fail to dent the chart, — but itâs hardly unexpected either, in this difficult to penetrate chart. Savage also sank without trace, but Gangland made a number 20 appearance on the PC chart, despite the fairly well-publicised oversight of not actually featuring a save game option.

Unsurprisingly, neither the Xbox nor Cube featured a single game in either All Formats Top 40. Similarly unsurprisingly, all 20 of the PS2 full price titles feature in the Top 40, although the format features just two bona-fide exclusives in FFX-2 and Eye Toy: Play, with its charts crammed full of multi-platform titles.

Next weekâs chart should see the appearance of Deus Ex 2, Cricket 2004 and Spy Hunter 2 (slippage permitting), which means thereâs unlikely to be much change near the very top, although Deus Ex 2 might reasonably be expected to make its mark in the top ten.