A recent study done by market research firm Parks Associates revealed that the growth of the MMORPG industry may lie in free-to-play MMORPGs. How come? Because more gamers find themselves interested in the prospect of a free game. Learn more after the jump!

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.

With the great response the community gave Funcom's Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, it's no surprise that it has topped the US PC sales charts. To find out more, head on over to the full article by clicking on the "read more" link below.

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.

National Purchase Diary or NPD has released the top ten bestselling games for the week of June 2 and the results may surprise you. While the market research firm has had its share of criticisms from other industry analysts, a lot of people still turn to them for the latest sales figures.

The top two slots were claimed by World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade respectively. It seems that no amount of Wife/Girlfriend/Parent aggro can stop this juggernaut.

Furthermore, casual gamers have claimed the third slot with Sims 2 Seasons as it even outsold Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars which nabbed fourth and Halo 2 ending only on fifth place.

Check out the complete list to see if any of your favorite games managed to grab a slot.

Top Ten Games for the week of June 2:

1. World Of Warcraft - Blizzard
2. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade - Blizzard
3. The Sims 2 Seasons - Electronic Arts
4. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars - Electronic Arts
5. Halo 2 - Microsoft
6. The Sims 2 Celebration Stuff - Electronic Arts
7. Civilization IV - 2K Games
8. The Sims 2 Deluxe - Electronic Arts
9. Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows Of Angmar - Turbine/Midway
10. Half-Life 2: Episode 1 - Valve/Electronic Arts

With all the recent releases of video games, it appears that the established IPs are still dominating the charts. When will we be seeing more new IPs join the list? Be sure to keep checking back here for the latest development on QJ.NET.

  

Move over, Azeroth! It was reported last week that Turbine Inc.'s The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar title had been UK's top-seller. What wasn't mentioned - and has just come to light today via an NPD market report - is that LotRO had beaten some rather formidable odds on its way to the top, by way of Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft MMORPG.

Going into details on last week's top five, we find LotRO's standard pack at the top spot, with the game's special edition release taking second place. Third and fourth place are occupied by WoW and its Burning Crusade expansion pack, with the fifth-largest selling PC game being The Sims 2: Seasons expansion pack, released last March.

What isn't clear is if this NPD report is based on numbers from the UK region alone, or if it also includes sales from North America - LotRO was released to both regions on April 24. Whatever the case, it's good to see that LotRO is off to a strong start, while WoW is enjoying strong sales even after being up and running since 2004.

We're all aware that Blizzard, together with various corporate partners, has been giving away free trial accounts for World of Warcraft (WoW). Now, if you're one of those who still doesn't have a copy, heads up because today is your lucky day.

Over at online retail store Amazon.com, the MMORPG's for sale for just US$ 19.99. In case you want to get the expansion The Burning Crusade as well, do take note that it can be purchased for just US$ 24.99. The expansion's original price before this deal was around US$ 39.99.

The two titles' price total is US$ 54.98. But quite interestingly, it will only cost you US$ 29.98 if you buy 'em both. The Burning Crusade has been released for more than three months now and is credited for U.S. PC game sales surge by National Purchase Diary (NPD).

The Read link below should take you to Amazon.com's online product page.

PC gamer sales are currently having a resurgence in the U.S., and one of the reasons behind it is the steadily growing popularity of MMORPGS. In particular, Blizzard's World of Warcraft.

New York Times reports that according to an analyst from the NPD Group, U.S. retailers sold US$ 203 million worth of PC games in the first two months of 2007. NPD's Anita Frazier said that sales in the same period last year peaked at US$ 136.8 million.

According to Frazier, sales of RPG titles were 43 percent higher than in the first two months of 2006, and the release of The Burning Crusade in January is likely to have accounted for a great deal of these sales. "The robust performance we're seeing in PC game sales can be tied to several key titles across several genres," said Frazier. "But we'd be remiss not to address the continued success of World of Warcraft."

Really, no surprise here. The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack and the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has again pwned all the others and stay up there as the kings of the US Sales Charts for Games for Windows.

There really seems to be not enough Sims games as four of them claimed positions in the recent chart from the NPD. World of Warcraft got two, one for the record breaking expansion and of course for the original. Here's it is:

• The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack (Electronic Arts)
• World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack (Vivendi)
• World Of Warcraft (Vivendi)
• The Sims 2 (Electronic Arts)
• Supreme Commander (THQ)
• Titan Quest: Immortal Throne Expansion Pack (THQ)
• The Sims 2 Glamour Life Stuff Expansion Pack (Electronic Arts)
• The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack (Electronic Arts)
• Battlefield 2142 (Electronic Arts)
• Age Of Empires III (Microsoft)

Well, which upcoming titles do you think will break this vicious cycle? We'll keep you posted.

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.