Nintendo Wii scores seventh consecutive win over rivals

Continuing its winning-streak, the Japanese gaming console maker Nintendo once again succeeded in attaining the top position in the latest sales charts after smashing its arch-rivals Microsoft and Sony in the US video game consoles market.

Among the trio of next generation gaming consoles, Kyoto, western Japan-based Nintendo has emerged as the numero uno in July for the seventh consecutive month after selling 425,000 units of its popular Wii video game devices in the United States, outshining both Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 video game consoles.

Although, Sony got a boost in sales, but still has remained far behind the rival biggies in gaming arena. The Tokyo, Japan-based tech mammoth’s American unit, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc., or SCEA, last month cut the price of its 60 GB PlayStation 3 game console by $100, or 17 percent, in the United States, in an attempt to regain the market share it is gradually loosing to arch-rivals, Nintendo and Microsoft.

According to the latest market data provided by market research firm NPD Group Inc., consumers bought 425,000 Wii systems in July, an 11% increase over June and company’s largest monthly sales figure of 2007.

The more-powerful systems, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, in July, again lagged behind in the fierce battle for dominance in the booming gaming consoles market by moving 159,000 and 170,000 units, respectively, as per the fresh sales results provided by the NPD. Compared to June’s sales, the recent PS3 sales are 61% up, while it is 14% down for Xbox 360.

In the hand-held category, Nintendo DS remained the most popular game system of any kind in July, with impressive sales of 405,000 units, ahead of PlayStation Portable, or PSP, with 214,000 units. Nintendo DS is a portable game player that is still selling briskly more than two years after its introduction.

As per NPD data, 222,000 units of PlayStation 2 and 87,000 Game Boy Advances were sold during the month.

Total sales of game consoles more than doubled to $286 million, the Port Washington, New York-based research firm NPD said. Total Wii units sold stand at 10.6 million, slightly more than the Xbox 360's estimated 10.5 million, while Sony's PS3 has sold just 4.3 million units globally since launching last November.

According to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, the video game industry overall had $926 million in sales, an increase of 37% compared to July 2006. "July is typically one of the slower months for the video game industry," she said. "At this pace, the industry is on track to ring up $16-$18B for the year."

Hardware sales also jumped 77 percent year over year, racking up $380.8 million in sales. Accessories and software were also in the ascending, rising 51 percent annually to $125.4 million and 11 percent to $419.9 million respectively.

Nintendo scored three of July’s top 10 best selling game titles. It had two software titles for the Wii and one for its DS handheld. The rank wise total ten titles are:

1) NCAA Football 08 - Xbox 360 - Electronic Arts
2) Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The '80s - PS2 - Activision
3) Wii Play (with Wii Remote) - Wii - Nintendo
4) NCAA Football 08 - PS2 - Electronic Arts
5) Wii Mario Party 8 - Wii - Nintendo
6) NCAA Football 08 - PS3 - Electronic Arts
7) Pokemon Diamond Version - DS - Nintendo
8) Transformers: The Game - PS2 - Activision
9) Guitar Hero II (with guitar) - PS2 - Activision
10) Guitar Hero II (with guitar) - 360 - Activision