PS3 Sales Improve, But Still Last Place

NPD Group's July numbers for game console sales have arrived, and the news is good for Sony and Nintendo. The struggling PlayStation 3 saw a 60 percent sales boost thanks to a $100 price cut on the 60GB model that is being phased out. But Nintendo still held the sales lead with its Wii.

Although the PS3 is still in last place among the next-generation consoles, Sony did gain some ground against Microsoft. The company sold 159,000 units, far surpassing June's sales of 98,500. But it was still unable to top Microsoft's Xbox 360, which sold 170,000 units - slightly lower than June's 198,400 thanks to last month's extra week in NPD's counting.

The real winner in the game industry this year continues to be Nintendo, which retained the top sales spot by selling 425,000 Wii units. The Nintendo DS also fared well, with sales of 405,000 units in July, while the Nintendo GBA sold a respectable 87,000 units.

Last-generation consoles have continued to outsell both the Xbox 360 and PS3, which is not good news for game makers, as they must sell more titles on older systems to recoup the same revenues. Games for the latest consoles generally run between $10 and $20 more in price.

The PlayStation 2 racked up sales of 222,000 units in July, while Sony sold 214,000 units of its PlayStation Portable handheld device.

Overall, game industry sales in July nearly reached the $1 billion mark, up 37 percent from last year. Total yearly sales for 2007 thus far have topped $7 billion, a 42.6 percent increase from 2006. Much of that jump can be attributed to hardware sales as opposed to software, which makes sense as customers are still buying up next-gen consoles at a frenzied rate and Nintendo's Wii remains difficult to find in stores.