US Charts: Xbox version sends San Andreas back to the top in June

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas topped the sales charts in the USA for the month of June, thanks to the launch of an Xbox version of the title, while Lucasarts' Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith took second place.

San Andreas was far out in front, selling around 385,000 units over the course of the month on Xbox, while Revenge of the Sith topped the PS2 chart with almost 230,000 sales on that platform alone, and clocked up 106,000 on the Xbox to boot.

Nintendo's Pokemon Emerald led the handheld ranking and came in at number three overall, selling some 265,000 units and demonstrating the continued strength of the Pokemon franchise and the GBA platform in North America.

Indeed, the top three handheld titles were all GBA titles - with Activision's Madagascar at number two, and Nintendo's own Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones at three, with the top ranked DS title being Kirby Canvas Curse at four, and the top ranked PSP game being Need for Speed Underground Rivals at five.

Back with home console titles, EA's Medal of Honor: European Assault sold strongly, shifting around 283,000 across the three major console platforms - with the PlayStation 2 way out in front, accounting for over 161,000 of those units.

THQ also broke the 200,000 unit mark comfortably with Destroy All Humans!, while Microsoft's Rare-developed Conker: Live and Reloaded managed to come in at number two on the Xbox ranking with around 150,000 sales.

Overall, there were 12 titles that sold over 100,000 units in the ranking - exactly the same number as in last June, with year on year growth actually tracking at just 2 per cent for the full month.

Adding June's NPD figures to those for the rest of the year to date reveals that for the first six months of the year, PC and console software sales are up by 10 per cent over last year - suggesting that the industry is on track for another strong growth performance in 2005.

On a related note, NPD today announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with UK firm Chart-Track, which will see the two collaborating on the provision of data from the US and UK markets respectively.

No exact details of the deal were announced, but according to Chart-Track managing director John Pinder, "this international partnership is a natural progression of the increased economic importance of the global computer and video games industry. Having access to data from both sides of the Atlantic will prove invaluable in gaining an accurate picture of the worldwide market."