Why Microsoft should be eating their heart out about new NPD sales figures

The console sales numbers for February are here, and sales have yet to slow down appreciably from the phenomenal year we had in 2007. But Microsoft has cause for concern about Sony's performance. The Xbox 360 maker told us to expect this a slow month due to supply constraints, but many observers won't concern themselves with the whys of a second consecutive disappointing month. Instead, the story will be that Sony has smoked Microsoft two months running. Sony now has some strong momentum that it can ride into the launch of industry juggernauts like Metal Gear Solid 4—which Sony will exploit with a new system bundle to draw in first-time PS3 buyers—and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.

Add in the fact that Sony is now sitting on the de-facto high-definition standard in Blu-ray and the PlayStation 3 is by far the most future proof—and affordable—Blu-ray player, it has a distinct advantage for consumers who want more than just games out of their consoles. According to another study by the NPD Group, gamers are a very media-hungry bunch, and the PlayStation 3 simply gives them more choices in that area than the Xbox 360.

"Consumers are recognizing the tremendous value of PS3 and we believe that Blu-ray becoming the high-def format of choice was the tipping point for many consumers," SCEA president Jack Tretton said in a comment about the February numbers.

Sony wants to focus on the strength of the entire PlayStation brand, noting that it generated the most US retail dollars in the industry for the second consecutive month with $511 million in sales—52 percent and 6 percent higher than Microsoft and Nintendo, respectively. This month's PlayStation 2 sales prove that Sony has three viable systems filling living rooms with hardware

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