NPD: Xbox 360 maintains its sales lead in August

Matthew DeCarlo

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Microsoft maintained its lead over the competition in August, outpacing both Nintendo and Sony in the console war. NPD's latest round of statistics show that Redmond shipped 356,700 Xbox 360s in the US last month, leaving the Wii and PlayStation behind with 244,300 and 226,000 units sold -- and with Halo: Reach due this month, Microsoft shouldn't have any trouble holding its position.

The Wii continued its steady decline in August, marking the console's lowest point since its November 2006 debut. Likewise, the DS fell 14% to 342,700 shipments from July's 398,000 units (which was a 26% drop). Although Sony's consoles ranked last, it's worth noting that the PS3 saw its thirteenth consecutive month of sales growth and it could soon surpass the Wii.

Madden NFL 11 dominated game sales, with just under a million copies sold for both the 360 and PS3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii), Mafia II (360), and New Super Mario Bros. (DS) filled out the five most purchased titles, all of which had between 110,000 and 125,000 units sold. As noted above, with Halo: Reach on the horizon, you can expect that to top NPD's next report.

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It is evident that the Wii would start to lose ground since Nintendo did not lower the price. They are going to be forced to do this in order to regain ground and turn around the decline for the time being. I'm sure that they are on their own schedule for a new Console as I doubt the Wii has the stamina to keep up with Xbox and PS3 for the longer haul. As long as Nintendo keeps with the backward compatibility, I'm sure the upgrade to the Wii will sell just as strong. As for Sony, they have only to go up as people start purchasing an additional system.
 
Nintendo's on the way down, but they could capture some more system sales if they reissue the Wii at $99. The Xbox 360 seems to have the longest legs. It got an early lead and still sells well in the software charts. Waht really has me curious is how Nintendo will come back in the next generation. Will they try to take on Sony and Microsoft head on or just be happy with their low hardware system offerings and novel control interface?
 
I always had the feeling that Wii is sort of a fad; so knowing that it is now falling behind in sales isn't a big surprise for me, anyway it was good for them as long as it lasted.
 
I own all 3 systems so I can honestly say Xbox is the best buy.

PS3 is over priced and the only console that makes new consoles with less features (aka ps3 slim not being able to play ps2 games). That loads for everything multitasking is just a myth with ps3.

Xbox has the best UI compared to PS3's PSP enlarged UI.

Wii decided to focus more on kiddie games, they need to buckle down and just make a controller for their games and the fact you cant play DVDs isn't a supporting characteristic.

The only thing Wii truly has on PS3 besides prices is the fact you can download games in one shot where PS3 you have to go through a saving screen then an installing screen and 7/10 times an Update screen for each demo downloaded

All in all, Xbox and PS3 try hard to bankrupt you from the $4.99 ps3 add-ons or the $11.99 for TV shows to xbox gold. If gamecube wasn't such a failure I think wii would explore more adult games.
 
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