Currently, the full price software chart in the UK boasts two football games, FIFA 2004 and Championship Manager: season 03/04, a wrestling game in the form of WWE Smackdown!: Here comes the pain and a personality-led skateboard game, Tony Hawk's Underground.
It's clear to see that sports games are big business, and in fact they represent the biggest selling cross-platform genre in the western world.
With that in mind, their impact as a force for driving gaming forward to gain a greater share of the mass market audience, and the links they share with their real-life counterparts, are potentially huge.
Electronic Arts' FIFA series, (the latest of which has been at the top of the UK charts for over a month) is a case in point, claims Clive Downie, European Marketing Director of EA Canada. He says the series represents a triumph for big-budget marketing helping the industry as a whole.
"We're broadening the appeal of our industry to more people. We're standing up and saying 'lots of people will be interested in this game, we need to communicate that to them and in this day and age that means spending a lot of money.'" Indeed, the financial health of the videogames often makes an interesting contrast with that of many the football clubs depicted in them.
However, over the 10 years since FIFA International Soccer debuted, EA's franchise has also been responsible for raising the profile of FIFA itself quite considerably, especially among kids.
A slightly smaller-scale success story has been Sports Interactive's Championship Manager series, which despite occasionally being teased for looking like a coloured Excel spreadsheet, has created many die-hard fans around the world, including singer Robbie Williams.
"Every football fan believes that they can do the job of a football manager better than the people in the jobs at the moment," explains Miles Jacobson, the Managing Director of Sports Interactive. "When people play it, they do actually go into the role of being a football manager. It's very addictive - people have lost time, girlfriends and jobs to this game!"
But Sports Interactive is also hoping to raise the UK profile of a very different sport: the fast-paced, highly-skilled and often brutal world of ice-hockey, in its recently-announced title Eastside Hockey Manager: Franchise Edition.
The idea for the game came after Sports Interactive saw a freeware game that Finnish Championship Manager fan, Risto Remes, had put together as a homage to the sports management series, but using Ice Hockey teams and statistics.
S.I. liked the idea so much that it sponsored Risto's last year of university and brought him - and his idea - over to the UK.
Ice Hockey is very big in North America and Canada and Miles hopes that their new game will help them break into the American Market. "It's going to be interesting because they haven't had this type of game released over there before, as we haven't had an American release of Championship manager, although the games have created a cult following amongst importers."
Miles is also quick to point out that, when compared to football, ice hockey has a more diverse audience with more women and children coming to see games. He hopes this will be reflected to a certain extent in the audience for Eastside Hockey Manager when it comes out in the first quarter of next year.
"We hope we can educate people in the UK about what a great sport ice hockey is and with the start of the Elite League, the quality of hockey and attendance seems to be going up, so things are looking very positive." Rhianna Pratchett
CHARTS - FULL PRICE SOFTWARE
Official UK Leisure Software Charts (c) ELSPA compiled by Chart-Track
1) FIFA 2004 (PS2, Xbox, PC, PL) Electronic Arts - £34.99
2) Need for Speed Underground (PS2, Xbox, GC) Electronic Arts - £39.99
3) LOTR: Return of the King (PS2, Xbox, GC, GBA) Electronic Arts - £34.99
4) True Crime: Streets of LA (PS2, Xbox, GC) Activision - £37.99
5) Tony Hawk's Underground (PS2, Xbox, GC, GBA) Activision - £39.99
6) Championship Manager: Season 03/04 (PC) Eidos - £29.99
7) WWE Smackdown! Here comes the pain (PS2) THQ - £37.99
8) The Simpsons: Hit & Run (PS2, Xbox, GC) VU Games - £37.99
9) Finding Nemo (PS2, GBA, PC, Xbox) THQ - £34.99
10) Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (GC) Nintendo - £37.99
