(Updates with NPD January sales data in first four paragraphs.)
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- Nintendo Co.'s (NTDOY) popular Wii videogame console continued to outsell Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.'s (SNE) PlayStation 3 in January, a month in which gaming hardware sales fell 25%, market researcher NPD Group said Thursday.
The results were skewed by the fact that January 2007 was a five-week month, compared with four weeks this year. But even taking the extra week into account, NPD said hardware sales this year were down 6% from last year.
Hardware unit sales on an equal-week basis fell less than 2% while the average retail price declined 5% from last year. The research group said that given the huge number of hardware systems sold in December, inventory shortages could be the biggest contributor to the softer than expected sales.
The best-selling console in January was the Wii, which sold 375,000 units, compared with 269,000 for the PlayStation 3 and 230,000 for the Xbox360. NPD analyst Anita Frazier said the gap separating the three rivals was the smallest seen in many months.
Microsoft said shortages of its Xbox 360 prevented it from meeting U.S. demand last month. A company spokesman said Thursday he expects U.S. shortages of the popular gaming console to continue through February.
"We hope to correct this by March," Microsoft spokesman Jeff Bell said.
The NPD data comes as iSuppli, which tracks game and console sales, predicted that the Wii will this year likely displace Xbox 360 as the new-generation video game console with the world's largest installed base.
The global installed base for the Wii is expected to rise to 30.2 million units in 2008, up from 18 million in 2007, according to iSuppli. This will put the Wii ahead of the Xbox 360's total of 25.7 million units in 2008, markign the first time the Wii will have the largest installed base for the latest generation of home video game consoles.
Xbox 360 and the Wii, known for its unique motion-controlled joy stick, compete with Sony's PlayStation 3.
An estimated $18 billion was spent on gaming hardware and software last year, much of that amount accounted for by the top three selling consoles. Despite a weaker U.S. economy, annual sales of gaming hardware and software are expected to grow substantially again this year.
As to the Microsoft's current Xbox shortage, Bell explained the holiday gift- buying season left Xbox supplies for January already tighter than expected. Then there was a new rush of buying by people cashing in gift cards they received during the holidays. Xbox console supplies quickly dried up, and Microsoft's retail partners ran out.
-By Scott Morrison, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-6118; scott.morrison@ dowjones.com; and Ben Charny, 415-765-8230;
ben.charny@dowjones.com
