February 2008 NPD

Nintendo DS 587.6k
Nintendo Wii 432k
PlayStation 2 351.8k
PlayStation 3 280.8k
Xbox 360 254.6k
PlayStation Portable 243.1k

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision, Xbox 360) 296.2k
2. Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom, Xbox 360) 295.2k
3. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) 289.7k
4. Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom, PS3) 233.5k
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Activision, Wii) 222.9k
6. Mario & Sonic: at the Olympic Games (Sega, Nintendo DS) 205.6k
7. Lost Odyssey (Microsoft, Xbox 360) 203.6k
8. Turok (Touchstone, Xbox 360) 197.7k
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Activision, PS2) 183.8k
10. Rock Band (Xbox 360) 161.8k

Last generation gaming here we come. Nintendo DS continued its dominance in the portable market, while Wii ticked up nicely to retain the lead in the console race. PS2, now in its 8th year, saw a solid performance, not only beating the other consoles other than Wii, but actually posting its best February since 2005. PS3 has firmly established itself in second place, despite still being way too expensive. This shows significant improvement over last year’s numbers. Microsoft did pre-NPD damage control, telling us they expected to be off both in February and March due to shortages.

On the software front, we see Activision’s usual suspects (Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero 3). Turok makes what will likely be a short-lived return to the top of the charts. Wii Play remains consistent as it has since it was released a year ago. The Devil May Cry gap is interesting. Despite having a userbase advantage of over 150%, the Xbox 360 version only outsold the PS3 version by 26%.