According to preliminary figures from NPD Group for January 2007, Nintendo Wii game console was the most successful game machine in the U.S. – although all three next generation consoles obviously did worse than in December. Microsoft"s Xbox 360 could not sustain the lead in the U.S. market in January as sales of the console dropped nearly four times from December (down from 1.132 million to 294 thousand). Meanwhile consumers were still very enthusiastic about Nintendo"s Wii although there was still a drop in sales (down from 604 thousand in December to 436 thousand). Sales of Sony"s PlayStation 3 dropped two times (to 244 thousand units), making the PS3 January"s worst-selling new-generation game console in the U.S.
"I do think that we"re selling to additional and different customers, compared with the Microsoft and Sony consoles. We"ve had an incredibly healthy start and we think there"s going to be a pretty long tail on this product," said Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing for Nintendo.
"Xbox 360 had a fantastic January, and we feel great about our position in the marketplace," said Molly O"Donnell, a spokeswoman for Microsoft Xbox group, adding that sales of Xbox 360 in January, 2007, were 18% higher year-over-year.