Xbox 360 Opens Wide Lead on PS3 in October

Sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360 dominated those of rival Sony's PlayStation 3 by a nearly two-to-one margin in October, according to new figures released by US sales tracker NPD.

The final numbers show the Xbox 360 with October sales of 371,000 units, compared to PlayStation 3 sales of 190,000. The Xbox 360 also lead the PlayStation 3 in the month of September, though by a smaller margin.

The news follows a September 7 price cut on the cheapest version of the Xbox 360 to $199, and comes just ahead of the November 19 launch of the New Xbox Experience, a set of updates to the console's interface and functionality.

Nintendo continued to top the console charts, with the Wii outselling the combined sales of both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360:

1. Wii - 803,000 units

2. Nintendo DS - 491,000 units

3. Xbox 360 - 371,000 units

4. PSP - 193,000 units

5. PlayStation 3 - 190,000 units

6. PlayStation 2 - 136,000 units

In all, the US video game industry brought in $1.31 billion during October 2008, an 18% increase over October 2007. Hardware sales grew 5% to $494.7 million, with software sales growing an impressive 35%--from $514.6 million last year to $696.7 million this October. Accessory sales were down 8%, only netting $120 million.

"The sales results are mixed this month, however," noted NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The console portion of the market made significant gains at 26% across hardware, software and accessories, while the portable side of the market stalled, declining 14%. Year-to-date the portable segment of the market is still up 7%."