It's like even before Will Wright's Spore releases, Electronic Arts keeps shoveling more and more moolah into the vault. Someone definitely did something right by getting IKEA involved in the latest expansion to The Sims 2, because the brand-approved luxuries tucked away inside every twenty buck box managed to overtake every PC retail game offered in the US. The full top ten list follows at the full story.

Five new videos are in for  World of Wacraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion, featuring the zones: Dragonblight, Zul'Darak, Sholazar Basin, Borean Tundra, and the Howling Fjord. Check out the videos in the full article.

Ubisoft has more reasons to celebrate once again as Assassin's Creed was hailed as the chart topper for the PC software sales list from the NPD Group. Other notable titles that were recognized during the week of April 6 to April 12 included Blizzard's World of Warcraft and Valve's Portal. You can view the complete list by reading our full article after the jump.

Just how many sales records has Blizzard's The Burning Crusade broken? Well, it's no surprise that the World of Warcraft expansion has secured the top spot in the NPD Group's top 10 bestselling PC video games list. See the full article for more info.

For the month of February, Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft and its expansion World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade occupy the top two seats for sales according to NPD. Last week, their weekly reign was disturbed by newly released PC RTS titan THQ and Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander which sat on the number two seat outselling World of Warcraft.

Now Supreme Commander gets kicked out into fourth place in this monthly ranking as Electronic Arts' The Sims 2 Seasons steals the third seat from under it. As IGN reports, World of Warcraft stands at a whopping five-fold lead against the next five titles following it, despite The Sims 2 Seasons and Supreme Commander's 50,000 and 40,000 sales totals (respectively) for the month.

We went over to Voodoo Extreme and checked out NPD's list of the Best Selling PC Games for the month of February. Currently, it stands at:

1. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack - Vivendi - $38
2. World Of Warcraft - Vivendi - $25
3. The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $28
4. Supreme Commander - THQ - $49
5. The Sims 2 - Electronic Arts - $41
6. XP Games JC - Viva Media - $10
7. The Sims: Life Stories - Electronic Arts - $37
8. The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $30
9. Battlefield 2142 - Electronic Arts - $42
10. Vanguard: Saga Of Heroes - Sony Online Ent. - $49
11. Age Of Empires III - Microsoft - $49
12. Paws & Claws Pet Vet - Valusoft (THQ) - $16
13. The Sims 2 Nightlife Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $31
14. City Of Villains - NCsoft - $4
15. MahJongg XP Championship 200 Platinum JC - Viva Media - $10
16. Halo: Combat Evolved - Microsoft - $20
17. Sim City 4 Deluxe - Electronic Arts - $23
18. The Sims 2: University Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $31
19. Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection - Microsoft - $20
20. Warcraft III Battle Chest - Vivendi - $39

Strategy fans clamor around stores to grab a copy of Supreme Commander, the newly released masterpiece from Gas Powered Games, which according to NPD has outsold Blizzard's World of Warcraft for the week February 18 to February 24. The supreme strategy title published by THQ sits on the number two spot on NPD's weekly Best Selling PC Games list.

 

Supreme Commander, one of two titles contending for the throne of real-time strategy for the year 2007, is a strategy behemoth that's big. Literally. We mean it's eight gigs, needs big processing power, sports big units, big ambitions, big egos behind it and it's up against big (sneaky?) competition.

The top 10 best selling PC games for the week February 18 through 24 are:

1. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack - Vivendi US$ 36
2. Supreme Commander - THQ - US$ 48
3. World Of Warcraft - Vivendi - US$ 20
4. The Sims 2 - Electronic Arts - US$ 37
5. The Sims: Life Stories - Electronic Arts - US$ 35
6. The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - US$ 30
7. Battlefield 2142 - Electronic Arts - US$ 39
8. Deal or No Deal - Global Star Software (Take 2) - US$ 20
9. MS Age Of Empires III - Microsoft US$ 48
10. MS Flight Simulator X Deluxe - Microsoft US$ 67

Also noted is Electronic Arts' domination of the charts. Blizzard's World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade still reigns on top of the chart. Will Supreme Commander do just as well in the succeeding weeks? Well, only time will tell. Oh and NPD, too.

 

The folks at PlayOn have asked a valid question regarding the state of Azeroth, post-expansion. They're wondering about the effects of the expansion on PvP, and while it may seem obvious to some of you, they have actual numbers to back it up.

Testing their hypothesis across 5 servers, PlayOn found that the numbers have dropped rapidly on the old BGs as a result of the expansion. This information does lead to additional information though, as they point out in their analysis:

Now, it's intuitive that post-60 content is more appealing to many players than the same old BGs. What may be less obvious is the added pressure for those level 60 players to get the expansion pack. Level 60 players who were content to just PvP now have to endure much much longer wait times to get into BGs. In other words, level 60 life without the expansion pack became difficult.

They also note that, because of the expansion, most of those who are probably still in the old battlegrounds are probably the ones who still don't have an expansion, and those who are playing the expansion are probably levelling up first. Moral of the story: Blizzard probably wants you to get the expansion so you can be cool.

How about you? Expansion owner or not? How's your game going?

 

After the successful launch of The Burning Crusade in western territories, investors in China's online game operators are now keeping a close eye on The9 Limited this week for confirmation of a rumored deal to extend its massively multiplayer World of Warcraft franchise with the Burning Crusade expansion pack. The9 presently handles the distribution of WoW in the Chinese region

Industry watchers have been wondering whether Vivendi's Blizzard Entertainment unit might try to go around The9 to launch the expansion pack with a new partner since The9's original license contract in February 2004. Blizzard has stated in the past that they are actively exploring and discussing cooperation opportunities and further expansion of its business with local potential partners for mainland China.

The9's stock is notching all-time highs lately, as investors look at China's strongest pipeline of future games, as well as the most sophisticated population of gamers playing WoW. With their release of Hellgate: London still in the works, nearly all of the company's revenue is currently coming from WoW.

If you thought all the Burning Crusade hoopla is over now that the launch is a few days behind us, think again. Those who have yet to explore the new lands that have been opened in Azeroth (and beyond!) will surely appreciate this look at the Hellfire Peninsula, courtesy of Game Trailers. Check it out below.

In case you've been living under a rock (please excuse the tired cliche), The Burning Crusade is the first expansion pack for StarCraft, Diablo Series">Blizzard's insanely popular title World of Warcraft, the Grand Poobah and current king of the MMORPG hill.

We also think it's the reason why Blizzard has yet to make any announcements about a new Starcraft game, but that's just us. Enjoy the vid, and see what else the Grand Poobah makers have to offer in the coming months.

Looks like a lot of UK retailers jumped the gun. Apparently, retailers across the UK began selling the WoW expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, over the weekend before its supposed launch.

According to some reports, one major UK supermarket started selling 'em on Saturday after the stocks were delivered. After that, independent and specialist games stores followed suit and placed TBC on sale.

Amidst this scenario, the game's designer and distributor remains optimistic that the slight snafu wouldn't hurt the planned (and already concluded) launch. Blizzard designer Jon LeCraft was there to sign copies of TBC and there were some who wore their WoW costumes. We're quite certain that whoever bought the game before the launch is still bragging about his "feat" to his/ her friends.