Best sellers
Electronic Arts' Fifa 2000 soccer sim was the best selling game in the UK last year. It shifted almost half a million copies, even though it only appeared just before Christmas. On figures compiled by games trade magazine MCV, Fifa 2000 (480,000) pipped GTI's Driver (467,000), Konami's Metal Gear Solid (350,000), Sony's Gran Turismo (330,000) and Eidos Interactive's Tomb Raider 4 (320,500). Tomb Raider 2 (270,000) and Fifa 99 (250,000) also made the top ten. All the top games were available for the Sony PlayStation, and seven for the PC.
In the US, Hasbro's Roller-Coaster Tycoon (719,535 units) was the year's best-selling PC game, according to research firm PC Data. EA's SimCity 3000 (657,514) came second, ahead of Disney's quiz game, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (592,655), Microsoft's Age of Empires II (469,376), and Havas Interactive's Half-Life (445,123).
Back on track
British Sony PlayStation owners have been feeling jealous because the Americans can buy Gran Turismo 2, the car rally game, and we can't. However, the agony has been ameliorated by news that Sony Computer Entertainment of America has had to remaster the disc. "In an attempt to meet and satisfy the extremely high consumer demand," says SCEA, "Gran Turismo 2 shipped with a few software bugs that, unfortunately, were not caught during our extensive product evaluation process." Some players found they could not reach the 100% score and a few lost saved game data. There should be no problems with the UK version, which is due in the shops tomorrow.
Barking good fun
Sega of Japan plans to enter the mechanical dog business in competition with Sony's AIBO. According the reports from Japan, Poo-chi, a "low-cost robot dog", will be launched on April 1. Unlike AIBO it will not be able to learn, but it will be able to respond to its owner and exhibit "moods". Sega's toy dog will be 14cm tall and weigh 365g including batteries. It will be available in translucent blue, pink or green versions for less than 3,000 yen (about £17). Sega UK could not provide further information, but apparently Tiger Electronics - the company that sold the Furby - will distribute Poo-chi in the US and Europe.
Drift south
Infogrames, the acquisitive French games group, is moving its UK headquarters from Manchester to London. Having completed the takeover of GT Interactive, it's consolidating staff in GTI's office in Hammersmith. However, the company will continue to develop games in Manchester (where Infogrames took over Ocean Software in 1966) and Sheffield (where it took over the Gremlin Group last year).
