Xbox 360 Barely Outsells PS3 in August

It's back and forth between Microsoft and Sony, while Nintendo trumps both with more Wii sales than Xbox 360 and PS3 combined.

Xbox 360 won the latest round in the monthly battle with PlayStation 3 hardware sales, according to figures released by NPD Friday. Of course, both figures--195k for Xbox 360 and 185k sold of PS3--pale to the nearly half a million Wii consoles Nintendo moved.

With 453k consoles sold, you'd think Wii was the best-selling game machine for the month. Actually, it was DS at 518k handhelds sold.

What's really interesting, however, isn't the continuation of the trend of Wii obliterating the competition; instead, it's how Madden NFL 09 sold a fraction on Wii what it did on other platforms. Only 115k copies were snatched up on Wii compared to an impressive 1.6 million on both Xbox 360 and PS3.

It even sold less than Too Human, which is a far more niche title than passing around the pigskin. Apparently Wii owners prefer working out with Wii Fit and pedal-to-the-metal sessions of Mario Kart than football or looting adventures set to a Norse mythological back drop.

Looking at the bigger picture, it contributed to a 9% growth in the gaming industry over last August. NPD estimates another record year, with 2008 bringing in over US$22 billion in sales.