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NPD Group has released its video game sales data for the month of August. Not surprisingly, the Wii and the DS continued to rule the market, with 403,600 and 383,000 units sold respectively.

Microsoft, however, was the first of the big three console manufacturers to chime in on its performance for the month, as the latest data from NPD Group indicate that not only did the Xbox 360 outsell the PlayStation 2 for the first time, but its unit sales rose 63 percent to 276,000, versus an 18 percent decline for PS3 and 5 percent decline for Wii month over month.

Sales of the Xbox 360 were clearly boosted by a price cut of the console in early August, and are expected to further increase in the month of September due to the release of Halo 3, the final game in the Halo trilogy. It’s hard to say if this trend will continue after the Halo 3 hype is over, but it sure will be interesting to see how the consoles perform once all the preholiday games have been introduced.