'Halo 3' helps Xbox 360 gain first win over Wii

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Microsoft Corporation has outshined its arch-rival Sony for the first time this year in the US video game consoles market by selling 527,800 Xbox 360 video game consoles in September. Soaring sales of Xbox 360 video game "Halo 3" helped the Redmond giant emerged as the numero uno among the trio of next generation gaming consoles in sales.

According to fresh sales results provided by market research firm NPD Group Inc., US gamers last month bought 527,800 Xbox 360 consoles, making it the best-selling video game console in the country.

Nintendo’s Wii and PlayStation 3 from Sony Corp. lagged behind in the fierce battle for dominance in the booming gaming consoles market. According to NPD research data, Nintendo sold 501,000 Wii consoles in the US during the period, while Sony sold 119,000 PlayStation 3 units.

As expected, the blockbuster game Halo 3, which earlier this moth has broken all the U.S. sales record for a new video game, has helped lift Xbox 360 console sales, and gave software maker a significant push to surpass Wii.

Halo 3, which hit shelves on Sept. 25, generated sales of more than US$170 million within 24 hours of its release, and rocketed to 300 million dollars in sales in the first week since launch, the Redmond, Washington-based software giant has reported.

Overwhelmed with record-breaking sales of Halo 3, which runs exclusively on Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has called the game a true ‘cultural phenomenon’, and hoped at the time that impressive debut of the Halo 3 title would help the company boost sales of its Xbox 360 video game console over the holiday season, and would strengthen its position in the surging gaming console market.

Sales of Microsoft’s future-generation game and entertainment system had fell 60% year-over-year in the fiscal fourth quarter.

Developed by Bungie Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios, Halo 3 is the hugely anticipated third chapter in the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo franchise.

Halo 3, exclusively made for the Xbox consoles, became the top-selling video game for the month by selling 3.3 million copies, more than twice as many as the next nine games combined, NPD said.

The titles on the list of ten best sellers are: 1. Halo 3 (Xbox 360) - 3.3 million copies; 2. Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) - 282,000 copies; 3. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo DS) - 224,000 copies; 4. Madden NFL 08 (PlayStation 2) - 205,000 copies; 5. Skate (Xbox 360) - 175,000 copies; 6. Madden NFL 08 (Xbox 360) - 173,000 copies; 7. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) - 167,000 copies; 8. BioShock (Xbox 360) - 150,000 copies; 9. Brain Age 2 (Nintendo DS) - 141,000 copies and Heavenly Sword (PlayStation 3) with 139,000 copies at number ten.

Halo 3 also dominated console software sales, which last month totaled $550 million, up 40 percent from August, and 64 percent from the same month in 2006. The total hardware sales rose 124%, as per research firm NPD’s estimates. The title has generated more than $225 million in sale in September.

Nintendo, the Kyoto, Japan-based gaming company, has outsold competitors every month since December with its revolutionary gaming device Wii. Launched in November last year, Nintendo’s Wii console retails for $US250, the console has attracted users with easy-to-play games and a motion-sensitive controller that has been popular with mainstream gamers as well as new audiences like senior citizens and very young children. These features have apparently helped build buzz for the machine, and made Wii more appealing to some consumers.