Core games star in strong September

A big month for core gaming helped UK games retailers take 125.6m during September.

It is only a slight drop of 1.5 per cent compared to September 2010.This is because it was higher-priced core games– such as FIFA 12, Gearsof War 3 and Dead Island – that sold the most units.

A drop in casual game sales means that the actual number of titles sold was down 11.5 per cent year-on-year to 4,302,604 units.

umba Fitness was the only lower-priced game in the Top Ten. It costs 24.99 on Wii.The result was a successful month for the HD consoles. Over 70 per cent of all games sold last month were sold either on Xbox 360 or PS3.

As for publishers, Electronic Arts was the biggest company yet again, with Microsoft jumping up ten places to No.2 thanks to Gears of War 3.

But the highest climber in the publisher rankings was Koch Media. Thanks to Dead Island, the firm shot up 20 places to No.4, putting it ahead of big name rivals such as Nintendo, Codemasters, Ubisoftand Activision.

The UK September Top Ten

1. FIFA 12 (Electronic Arts)
2. Gears of War 3 (Microsoft)
3. Dead Island (Deep Silver)
4. F1 2011 (Codemasters)
5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Square Enix)
6. Driver: San Francisco (Ubisoft)
7. Zumba Fitness(505 Games)
8. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (THQ)
9. Resistance 3 (Sony)
10. Rugby World Cup(505 Games)