Software Top 10

While Madden dominated four of the top 10 slots this month, there were several other notable games whose sales deserve mention.



Perhaps the most talked-about game of August was Too Human, developed by Silicon Knights and published by Microsoft Game Studios. With the game's controversial director, Denis Dyack, consistently featured in the press, expectations for the game were varied. Ultimately, consumers purchased 168,200 copies of the game in August, which earned it the #8 spot for the month. That makes it one of the weaker first-month showings for a title published by Microsoft Game Studios.



Nintendo's Wii Play appears to have secured a near-permanent spot in the monthly top 10 as it completes its 19th month on the chart. With year-to-date sales of nearly 2.5 million units, it will be a top 10 selling title for 2008 just as it was in 2007.

Also in contention for the annual top 10 list is Nintendo's Wii Fit, which has now topped 1.8 million units, year-to-date. More importantly, sales of Wii Fit have accelerated since the month after its launch. It sold 75,000 units per week in June, 92,000 per week in July, and almost 99,000 per week in August. That kind of post-launch acceleration is unusual, even for Wii titles, and suggests that Nintendo is still fighting to meet demand.

Finally, Nintendo's Mario Kart continues to deliver and has now reached over 2.7 million units in LTD sales. After reaching a low of 174,000 units in the month of July, Mario Kart rose to over 328,000 units in August, its fifth month in the top 10.

Some hardcore RPG fans are no doubt interested in Namco-Bandai's Tales of Vesperia, the Xbox 360 exclusive entry in the long-running Tales series. According to data from the NPD Group, Tales of Vesperia ranked #58 for the month with 33,000 units sold during the 4 days after its 26 August launch.