US Charts: Red Dead Revolver takes the top spot for May

Rockstar's Red Dead Revolver on PS2 was the best selling game in the USA last month, with the old west action title leading the chart ahead of EA's Fight Night 2004 and Midway's NBA Ballers.

The PS2 version of Red Dead Revolver was comfortably at the top of the charts for the full month, according to the latest data from NPD Funworld, while the Xbox version was the top ranked title on the Microsoft platform, at number six in the charts.

Sony's console dominated the software sales charts, with ten of the top fifteen titles - and all of the top five - being PlayStation 2 games, while in hardware terms the console returned to its leading position following a price cut at E3, with a 34 per cent sales boost on the previous month.

By contrast, the Xbox (two titles in the top 15, with Red Dead Revolver at six being the top ranked) and the GameCube (also two titles in the top 15, with Pokemon Colosseum at 14 being the top ranked) both saw sales declines during the month - with the Xbox hardware sales down 27 per cent, and the Cube's sales down 19 per cent.

Nintendo desperately needs to do something to reinvigorate the Cube in the USA, in fact; while the difference in installed base between Xbox and Cube remains relatively small, at only 1.4 million units, the month to month sales of the GameCube have declined badly in the last few months.

In fact, last month the Xbox outsold the Cube by a ratio of almost 3:1 in the USA - a reversal of the position last December where the Cube outsold the Xbox to become the number two console in the region. While the Xbox is still being buoyed by its recent price cut, it's still worth noting that the Cube's sales in May were less than half of its sales in March - not a healthy position for Nintendo.

In the absence of major titles to stir demand for the console in the coming months, a price cut would be the normal response for the firm; but given the already low price point of the Cube, questions will be raised over how much prices can be trimmed before the console starts to look highly devalued to consumer eyes.