Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft React to September Sales

As usual, following the latest NPD sales data, the big three console makers have issued their own spin on their performance during the month.

Sony noted that PS3 sales were up 94 percent year-over-year and 25 percent over the previous month. PS3 software sales grew 130 percent with 1.72 million units sold. Overall, the PlayStation brand earned $379 million in September. SCEA boss Jack Tretton commented: "We remain confident that our footing is solid as we enter the holiday season this year. Our new 80GB PS3 model has made its way to retail shelves and into consumers' living rooms as the best value for both their gaming and entertainment needs. If the impressive pre-sale numbers and ratings for LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, and Resistance 2 are any indication, we anticipate hardware and software sales to continue to lift in October as we officially kick off the broadest and deepest software line-up this holiday, including LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift and NBA '09: The Inside."

Nintendo of course doesn't need to say much, since the Wii and DS dominate every month, but the company pointed out that the Wii enjoyed the biggest monthly unit sales increase with 234,000 more units sold in September than August. The sales also represented a year-over-year increase of more than 37 percent. "The four Wii games in the top 10 all feature controls just not possible on other video game systems," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "The Wii Balance Board and Wii Wheel give players new ways to interact with their games, while the Wii Remote controller transforms into a pool cue, table tennis paddle or lightsaber. Consumers have truly responded to this variety of entertainment options."

As for Microsoft, the Xbox 360 was clearly helped by the September price cut, and the 360's installed base in the U.S. grew to 11.3 million. Microsoft once again boasted that its $199 Arcade SKU is the "most affordable next generation console on the market." September's data showed a record attach rate for Xbox 360 of 8.1. The launch of Rock Band 2 (only on 360 during September) certainly helped as well. In fact, Microsoft said that "Xbox Live has delivered more than 80% of the downloadable songs for music games, currently averaging 3.8 million music downloads per month. In total, Xbox 360 users have enjoyed more than 45 million music downloads."