Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart registered a comfortable number one on its debut weekend. Not such good news for Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade.
The numbers from the UK boxed charts are in and unsurprisingly, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is sitting pretty at number one. Very pretty if the incredible detail that has gone into the game's lombax fur is anything to go by. According to GamesIndustry.biz, Rift Apart's numbers were similar to those of New Pokemon Snap and Monster Hunter: Rise.
Rift Apart's boxed sales in the UK were also three times that of Returnal's launch weekend. A slightly unfair comparison as Returnal is aimed at a much smaller and far more niche corner of the gaming world. As for what was arguably the second-biggest new release last week, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade, that didn't enjoy nearly as much initial success.
Intergrade debuted at a lowly number 12 in the UK boxed charts. While Square Enix would have been hopeful for a higher placement than that, there are a number of reasons why it didn't stand much chance of truly challenging Rift Apart. For starters, it is effectively nothing more than a PS5 upgrade of the original game. The Intermission DLC can be bought separately if you already own the game on PS4, and the PS5 upgrade is free for those people too.
The more telling number will be how many people download Intermission. Odds are the physical and digital download charts combined will make for very different reading in terms of Remake. A significant chunk of those who own Remake on PS4 will have claimed their free upgrade and paid the additional $20 for Intermission. Whether they were able to play it right away is another matter entirely.
There was widespread confusion last Thursday when Intergrade dropped as a large number of people eager to check out Yuffie's story were unable to. Square Enix has since issued information pointing people who had issues in the right direction. Back to the boxed charts, and the majority of the rest of the top ten makes for familiar reading. The only other new entry was Chivalry 2 at number nine.