Xboxist

NPD: Xbox 360 Trounces PS3 in September

The NPD sales figures for September 2008 have been released, and they aren't pretty for Sony. During the last month in North America, the Xbox 360 sold a respectable 347,200 units, boosted by a strategic price drop that saw the price of the lower-end Arcade bundle drop below $200. Sony sold 232, 400 units of its flagship PS3 console, and about the same number of PSP devices during the same period. While Microsoft's lead is not surprising, given the attractive price of its console, this news has to be worrying for Sony executives, who have touted 2008 as the "year of the PS3". Meanwhile, the Nintendo Wii continues to school both hardware manufacturers, as it steamrolls the competition with no end in sight. Interestingly, we learned recently that Nintendo is already hard at work on their next console, tentatively called the "Wii HD".

On the Software side of things, it was a fairly vanilla month. Rock Band 2 and Star Wars: Force Unleashed did predictably well, while Wii Fit continued to lure North Americans off the couch. With some incredibly high-profile games coming in October, next month's NPD figures are sure to feature a very competitive top ten.

North America Hardware Sales for September 2008:

1- Wii – 687 000
2- DS - 536 800
3- Xbox 360 – 347 200
4- PSP - 238 100
5- PS3 – 232,400
6- PS2 - 173,500

North American Software Sales for September 2008:

1 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Xbox 360 – LucasArts – 610,000
2 - Wii Fit - Wii - Nintendo of America - 518,000
3 - Rock Band 2 - Xbox 360 - EA - 363,000
4 - Mario Kart w/Wheel - Wii - Nintendo of America - 353,000
5 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - PS3– LucasArts – 325,000
6 - Mercenaries 2: World in Flames - Xbox 360 - EA- 297,000
7 Play w/ Wii Remote - Wii - Nintendo of America – 243,000
8 -Madden NFL 09 - Xbox 360 – EA – 224,000
9 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Wii – LucasArts – 223,000
10 - Madden NFL 09 - PS2– EA – 158,000

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