Nintendo Wii Leads December Sales; Xbox 360 Beats PS3 Thanks to Kinect

Michael Pacther predicts Nintendo Wii sales have dipped but is still leading the console wars for December. Xbox 360 units have outsold PS3 once again.

According to Wedbush Securities games industry analyst, Michael Pacther, Nintendo Wii has once again dominated the holiday season in the December sales, just before the NPD group reveals their December data. He also predicted that Xbox 360 has had a better run during December than Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3). As to how much? Double, to be exact.

In a preview note, Pacther indicated that Nintendo Wii will lead with 2.6 million units sold. The figure is a 32% dip from its last performance. On the other hand, Xbox will see a 91% boost with 2.5 million units sold, whereas the PS3 sold only 1.2 million.

“We expect strong sales for the Xbox 360 due to Kinect, and we believe that Kinect console bundles sold especially well. PS3 sales should be down, as sales from Move are unlikely to offset difficult comparisons from last September’s price cut,” said Pacther. “Given competition from the other consoles and as disclosed by Nintendo, we think that the Wii had another down month. We expect Nintendo DS hardware sales to also continue to struggle until the introduction of the Nintendo 3DS in March.”