Next Generation put in the time to figure out what the best selling North American video games of 2006 were. Okami barely made it, coming in at #100, with plenty of other great games letting down your sales expectations as well. Obviously not factoring the Asian and European sales doesn't do all of the games justice, but it's interesting to see what sells best in America.

One of the trends I found while looking through all one hundred games is that the movie industry has finally perfected their game equation. Come out with a movie, develop the game simultaneously to save on costs, then launch the video along with the video game and hopefully double profits, with the DVD hitting up stores in a few months to complete the love triangle. Probably ten or fifteen of the top one hundred were movie games, and half of that group were children games - Cars even came in at #2 on the whole list. I wonder how successful children games do in Japan where the movie industry isn't quite as popular. I'm surprised WWE games still sell so well in America too.

Here's the top twenty of the full list. The notation is game name, release platforms, total games sold in America, total American profits, random game rating, the game's genre, and its developers/publishers.

• 20. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (PS2 and Most Others, 1 million, $50 million, 82%, License / Activision)
• 19 . Brain Age (DS Exclusive, 1.1 million, $22 million, 78%, Puzzle / Nintendo)
• 18. NBA Live 07 (PS2 plus Xbox 360; Xbox; PSP; PC, 1.2 million, $50 million, 65%, Sports / Electronic Arts)
• 17. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 (PS2 plus Xbox 360; PSP, 1.2 million, 60 million, 79%, Sports / THQ)
• 16. Final Fantasy XII (PS2 Exclusive, 1.2 million, $65 million, 93%, RPG / Square Enix)
• 15. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red & Blue (DS plus GB, 1.3 million, $45 million, 66%, RPG / Nintendo)
• 14. Guitar Hero 2 (PS2 Exclusive, 1.3 million, $95 million, 92%, Music / Activision)
• 13. Tom Clancy's G.R.A.W. (Xbox; 360; PS2; PC, 1.4 million, $75 million, 91%, Shooter / Ubisoft)
• 12. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, (Xbox 360 plus PC, 1.4 million, $80 million, 94%, RPG / Take-Two)
• 11. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii plus Gamecube, 1.5 million, $75 million, 95%, RPG / Nintendo)
• 10. Need For Speed Carbon (PS2 and All Others, 1.6 million, $74 million, 75%, Racing / Electronic Arts)
• 9. Fight Night Round (Xbox 360 plus PS2; Xbox; PSP; PS3, 1.6 million, $80 million, 85%, Sports / Electronic Arts)
• 8. Call of Duty 3 (Xbox 360 plus Most Others, 1.7 million, $90 million, 84%, Shooter / Activision)
• 7. Kingdom Hearts II (PS2 Exclusive, 1.7 million, $90 million, 87%, RPG / Square Enix)
• 6. Gears of War (Xbox 360 Exclusive, 1.8 million, $110 million, 94%, Shooter / Microsoft)
• 5. New Super Mario Bros (DS Exclusive, 2 million, $70 million, 89%, Platformer / Nintendo)
• 4. NCAA Football 07 (PS2 plus Xbox 360; Xbox; PSP, 2.2 million, $100 million, 87%, Sports / Electronic Arts)
• 3. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2 and All Others, 2.5 million, $95 million, 85%, License / LucasArts)
• 2. Cars (PS2 and All Others, 2.6 million, $85 million, 71%, License / THQ)
• 1.  Madden NFL 07 (PS2 and All Others, 6.5 million, $300 million, 85%, Sports / Electronic Arts)

I think it's important to point out that whether it was rushed or not, Xbox 360's year early launch brought Microsoft plenty of benefits. Almost every game on the list is a PS2 and/or 360 game, with DS sneaking in a few hits too. It'll be fun to see what the list looks like for 2007 when 360, PS3, and Wii can go all compete together - if Brain Age can almost outsell Final Fantasy XII, then Sony and Microsoft might be surprised by the Wii's 2007 performance. PS3 will probably be able to match 360 in number of top selling games and total game profits, but I still don't think Sony will be able to overcome them until at least 2008.

Last week the World of Warcraft expansion Burning Crusade was launched at midnight around the world. It only took two days for the most hardcore of guilds to tear through it, but what about the rest of the players? Of the 8 million worldwide Azeroth addicts, 2.4 million bought the expansion pack on the first day of its release. Blizzard wasn't kidding about the 'world' part of Warcraft - Gears of War has been out for over a month and sold 3 million copies, but Blizzard achieved that in almost one night. Obviously Blizzard is thrilled, but instead of a typical bullshit media comment like 'we are excited, and hope to see more sales,' Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime fessed up that even they are impressed: "The Burning Crusade has already exceeded even our most ambitious expectations."

2 million of the 8 million total players are gaming from USA, and 1.2 million of them picked up a copy of it launch day, with the another 1.1 million coming from Europe. Shouldn't World of Warcraft be on that best selling games list of 2006 a few posts down the page? Jeez.

Does this mean we're not gamers? I have a hard time even trusting this list as true, but according to CVG these were the best selling games of last year. How many of the ten have you actually played? I've only played a pathetic three of the total ten:

Some of it makes sense - soccer, err, 'football' is the world's most popular sport, so that's not too surprising seeing it at the top. And sure, I guess a lot of moms are going to buy Cars for their kids, but WWE fans really pull in that many sales? How can you watch that crap now that Stone Cold turned wife abusive and the Vince McMahon plot crumbled along with Mankind's back bones? The day The Rock went corporate was the day it all went downhill. The Sims must be pulling a heft furry fetish following, and maybe Star Wars fans are even more powerful than Nintendo fanboys in the gaming world. Tomb Raider: Legend, Lego Star Wars and Liberty Stories are the only three I've played.

Bethesda has officially announced the Oblivion expansion: The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles. The RPG will be released on both PC and Xbox 360 in Spring, so we shouldn't have to wait much longer to try it out. I'm not a fan of Oblivion from the little I played it, but since the Xbox 360 version will be available for a purchased download on Xbox Live I might give it a try. Bethesda believes that Shivering Isles offers more than 30 hours of new gameplay as you explore the new Shegorath realm in Oblivion. It's no 8 million World of Warcraft, with ritzy midnight launches for an expansion, but Oblivion sold over 3 million copies in 2006 so it's definitely got a lot of fans. Lost Planet just reached 1 million game sales too, for those of you keeping track of the bulge in each company's pants. Here's some of the game features you can expect:

• See a world created in Sheogorath's own image, one divided between Mania and Dementia and unlike anything you've experienced in Oblivion.
• Battle the denizens of Shivering Isles, a land filled with hideous insects, Flesh Atronachs, skeletal Shambles, amphibious Grummites, and many more.
• Find and wield new weapons and armor, or have new ones forged for you by the talented craftsmen of Crucible and Bliss.
• Explore a bizarre landscape filled with twisting, vast dungeons buried within the roots of the trees themselves.
• Unravel the mystery surrounding the endless cycle of madness and destruction that threatens to destroy the Shivering Isles.