In recent months we've seen Sony's game console recover from its nightmare launch and apparently starting to sell well. While it certainly took a bit longer than Sony would have liked, the PlayStation 3 has finally vaulted to second place among console sales and is within arm's reach of the Nintendo Wii.

According to the latest NPD figures the best-selling console in January was the Wii, which sold 274,000 units, compared with 269,000 for the PlayStation 3 and 230,000 for the Xbox 360. Both Microsoft and Nintendo have reported some shortages so it may be a little early to know if this trend will continue, let alone predict that the PS3 is on its way to overtake its rivals overall sales. That said, Sony's console is indeed seeing the strongest growth of any video game console.

But where did the boost for the PS3 came from? Well, according to some analysts, a substantial portion of the console's sales growth was Blu-ray related. Though the next-gen DVD drive added hundreds of dollars to the cost of the console, now that Blu-ray is the apparent winner of the format war, Sony is finally reaping the rewards.