Though Take Two Interactive courted controversy after banning mods like OpenIV, the latest UK game charts courtesy of Gfk Chart-Track have reported that Grand Theft Auto 5 is number 1 in sales once again.

This would be the open world title’s 13th week in the number 1 spot since it launched in September 2013. Dirt 4 was in second place followed by FIFA 17 in third and Ghost Recon: Wildlands in fourth. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was in fifth place.

Blizzard’s Overwatch continues to see a strong presence at sixth while ARMS and Horizon: Zero Dawn, previously the top two last week, have fallen to seventh and eighth place respectively. Forza Horizon 3 and Tekken 7 round out the remaining top 10.

What are your thoughts on the past week’s top ten in the UK? How will things shake up with Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy being the only major new release for this week? Let us know in the comments below.

Last week, EA’s Play to Give initiative raised $1 million from PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center and Ditch the Label. To celebrate this support, EA is making some of its biggest games from last year playable for free across PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

“More than 5.7 million active players participated in the Play to Give in-game challenges from June 2-4,” said EA in a statement. “We were moved by your tremendous show of support.”

The games that will be playable across the three platforms are Madden NFL 17, FIFA 17, Titanfall 2, EA SPORTS UFC 2 and Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2. There will be certain caveats in place- on the Xbox One, you need an EA Access account to access these games. Meanwhile, on the PS4, a PS Plus account will be needed to access the multiplayer features of all of these games. The Plants vs Zombies trial will be limited to 10 hours, The Journey in FIFA will be 2 hours only (no restrictions on the other modes), Titanfall 2 seems to be limited to Gauntlet and the Beacon single-player content plus multiplayer features only, and the EA Sports UFC 2 trial is limited to 5 hours.

Even with the restrictions in place, that’s not bad at all- good on EA for doing a good thing with its charitable initiative, and good on them for allowing their biggest games to be playable for free, even if with limitations in place.

As if the launch of Xbox Game Pass isn’t announce, fans of the FIFA series will have a chance to play FIFA 17 for free until June 5th. This is thanks to the Xbox Free Play Days initiative but is only applicable for Xbox Live Gold subscribers.

FIFA 17 will be available on Xbox One till June 5th, 11.59 PM PDT or June 6th, 12.59 AM EDT/5.59 AM UK. All game modes will be available to try out and if you want to own the game, it will be discounted by up to 50 percent on the Standard Edition till June 5th. Achievements and progress will carry over from the Free Play Days version.

The FIFA 17 Deluxe Edition will be discounted by up to 50 percent while the Super Deluxe Edition sees a discount of up to 30 percent. If you live outside of North America, then you’re going to have to check if this is applicable in your region.

Electronic Arts offered its financial report for the fiscal year ending March 31st 2017 and had some rather strong figures. DICE’s Battlefield 1 was the obvious standout with 19 million players reported for the game thus far (which indicates the number of players registered).

EA noted that this was a 50 percent increase over Battlefield 4 within the same time. That’s not all though – FIFA 17 also had more than 21 million players with 12 million experiencing “The Journey” campaign mode. A 13 percent year over year increase in players was also seen for FIFA Ultimate Team through the Q4 2017 end.

Finally, it noted that EA Sports UFC 3 would be out in early 2018. Like its predecessor, it will be coming to the PS4 and Xbox One. A PC version wasn’t listed on the company’s release slate slide.

Battlefield 1 has a ways to go with its next DLC – In The Name of the Tsar – releasing in June. Stay tuned for more updates in the meantime.

Along with announcing dates and timing for this year’s EA Play event, Electronic Arts has also revealed that FIFA 17 will be heading to EA Access for Xbox One and Origin Access for PC on April 21st.

FIFA 17 arrived in September 2016 and has been a staple of the top ten UK charts since then. It’s the first game in the series to utilize the Frostbite Engine along with incorporating a story-based career mode with The Journey. Many other tweaks and changes to the fundamental mechanics were also made, enhancing the overall realism.

As part of The Vault, FIFA 17 will always be available for EA/Origin Access subscribers. You have to pay $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year but the service offers unlimited access to Vault titles. Other benefits like early access trials for upcoming new releases and discounts on all digital EA content are also pretty nice.

Of course, FIFA 18 is also coming up and will likely have a strong presence at E3 2017. Stay tuned for that and other information in the coming weeks.

EA CFO Blake Jorgensen teased even more information about Star Wars Battlefront 2 at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference and noted how it would be “dramatically larger” than its predecessor with “a lot of new characters” from the newer films.

Jorgensen simply said that, “The Star Wars universe is just unbelievable to build games in because it’s so vast.”

He also had time to tease Bioware’s new IP which is apparently “more sci-fi-related.” The action franchise is still a ways off from being properly revealed though.

Jorgensen offered a few other teases like how elements from FIFA 17 would be in Madden NFL 18, possibly referencing the successful single-player mode The Journey.

Engagement levels for Battlefield 1 are currently “fantastic” and as for Jade Raymond’s next action game, it’s “very early days” yet. That being said, the Assassin’s Creed producer’s next game is meant to become a new franchise.

What are your thoughts on all of this? Let us know in the comments below.

Electronic Arts has confirmed that its highly successful FIFA franchise will continue with FIFA 18 this year. During its earnings call for investors following its Q3 financial report, EA CEO Andrew Wilson also noted that Season 2 of The Journey, the single-player story campaign of FIFA 17, would be included.

“FIFA 18 will build on the foundation we created with story mode this year, bringing players back to The Journey with Season 2, featuring new characters and new storylines.

“Our development team in Vancouver is delivering deeply innovative new experiences across this year’s game, including an Ultimate Team, and creating the most emotionally immersive and connected FIFA we have ever produced.”

The Journey Season 1 seems to have been a major hit with Wilson stating that “more than 10 million fans have played The Journey, and Ultimate Team players are up nearly 10 percent year-over-year.”

What are your thoughts on FIFA 18 expanding even further on The Journey? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more.

EA Sports have introduced the fourth update for the Xbox One and PS4 versions of FIFA 17, and it introduces, among other things, some fixes for glitches and bugs in FIFA Ultimate Team. There are some other general changes, as well as fixes for the Career Mode, but as is always the case with FIFA, the Ultimate Team changes are really the one that stand out.

The update is under 1GB in size, so it shouldn’t take you too long to download. The update was made available for PC last week, too, before PC players start feeling shafted- it’s only now coming to consoles, actually.

You can check out the full list of changes that the update brings with it below. FIFA 17 is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with versions available on smart devices and last gen consoles too.

Addressed the following in FIFA Ultimate team:

• Displaying correct kit on the player in the kit select screen.
• Players will no longer be able to set custom player positions in Team Management during gameplay.
• An issue in Squad Building Challenges where switching a higher rated player with a lower rated player resulted in the overall squad rating going up.
• Removed Est. Date, Crest and Squad Name from the FUT Champions matchup screen.
• Changed the latency bar graphic to give more detail on connection quality.

Addressed the following in Career Mode:

• An issue where the current weekly wages from the budget tab do not properly reflect the actual weekly wages.

Visual / Presentation changes:

• Improved camera selection for slow motion goal replays.
• Addressed EATV buffering.
• Addressed audio balance of French commentators.
• Gameplay commentator language for The Journey now defaults to language selected in Game Settings.

Addressed the following in gameplay:

• Adjusted the defensive line position for low pressure tactics.
• Addressed an issue where a pass was made without a button press.

As per this week’s Gfk Chart-Track data, Grand Theft Auto 5 has claimed the top spot in sales for the UK once again. This marks the tenth such number one spot for Rockstar’s open world title though this only accounts for physical sales.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare finally dropped to second place following numerous weeks in the top spot. FIFA 17 has predictably gone to third place followed by Battlefield 1 and Forza Horizon 3. Watch Dogs 2 is at sixth place and continues to sell despite initially disappointing first week sales.

Rocket League, which recently crossed 25 million players, is in seventh place followed by Mafia 3 in eighth and Steep in ninth place. Gears of War 4 rounds out the top ten for the week. The coming week should be interesting Gravity Rush 2 out this week on PS4 and Resident Evil 7 out on January 24th.

What are your thoughts on Grand Theft Auto 5 once again claiming the number one spot in sales for the UK? Let us know in the comments below.

Nintendo’s Pokemon Sun and Moon have finally arrived and FIFA 17 has dethroned Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare from its long-reigning spot on top of the UK charts as per Gfk Chart-Track.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is still in second place followed by Pokemon Sun in third and Pokemon Moon in fourth. If you combine sales from both Pokemon titles, then they easily rule the charts for the week in the UK.

Battlefield 1 is in fifth place followed by Watch Dogs 2 in sixth place and Forza Horizon 3 in seventh place. Thanks to Black Friday, numerous games have found their way back up with various discounted bundles. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, for instance, is in eighth place. Meanwhile, Grand Theft Auto 5 is in ninth and Gears of War 4 is in tenth. Interestingly enough, Dishonored 2 is out of the top ten.

What are your thoughts on this week’s charts especially with Final Fantasy 15 out tomorrow? Let us know in the comments.