Xmas No.1: Date decision disqualifies Star Wars: The Old Republic

Sales of December’s Star Wars: The Old Republic won’t be counted towards the Christmas No.1.
Although the game is the last blockbuster release of the year, due on December 20th, it arrives three days too late to be included in the final count, according to GfK Chart-Track.
The UK chart tracker told MCV this week that the Christmas No.1 will be decided for the week ending Saturday, December 17th – not the week ending Saturday, December 24th as some may have expected.
“Normally we always say the last chart published before Christmas is the Christmas chart,” explained Chart-Track director Dorian Bloch. “We will stick with week 50, ending on December 17th. One issue with not going for week 51 is getting all the data from retail, which will be up to and including December 24th.”
XMAS NO.1s: A BRIEF HISTORY
EA dominates the Christmas No.1 list, with 11 titles taking the position – seven of which are FIFA games.
Call of Duty is the overwhelming favourite to be No.1 this Christmas, with three of the last four titles taking that position. But it’s not necessarily a sure thing. In 2008 Call of Duty: World at War was pipped to the top spot by FIFA ‘09.
Since the official All Formats Charts started properly in 1997 there have been only two single format No.1s, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in 2002 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 1998. There’s no GTA this year, so could Zelda cause an upset? At 100/1, Skyward Sword might be worth a quid.
1985 – Commando (Elite)
1986 – Gauntlet (US Gold)
1987 – Out Run (Sega)
1988 – Operation Wolf (Ocean)
1989 – Chase HQ (Ocean)
1990 – Teenage Mutant Turtles (Mirrorsoft)
1991 – WWF Wrestlemania (Ocean)
1992 – Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Sega)
1993 – FIFA International Soccer (EA)
1994 – FIFA Soccer ‘95 (EA)
1995 – FIFA Soccer ‘96 (EA)
1996 – FIFA ‘97 (EA)
1997 – FIFA: Road to World Cup ‘98 (EA)
1998 – Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo)
1999 – Tomb Raider: Last Revelation (Eidos)
2000 – Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (Eidos)
2001 – Harry Potter: Philosopher’s (EA)
2002 – GTA: Vice City (Take-Two)
2003 – Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (EA)
2004 – NFS: Underground 2 (EA)
2005 – NFS: Most Wanted (EA)
2006 – FIFA ‘07 (EA)
2007 – CoD 4: Modern Warfare (Activision)
2008 – FIFA ‘09 (EA)
2009 – CoD: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision)
2010 – CoD: Black Ops (Activision)

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/xmas-...epublic/086791