LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- Nintendo beat out Sony in the high-stakes first full month of competition between the companies' seventh-generation video-game systems, according to retail market-research firm NPD.
Nintendo sold 604,200 of its new Wii video game consoles in the United States in December, beating Sony, which sold 490,700 units of its new PlayStation 3, said the group.
Microsoft (
Charts) sold 1.1 million Xbox 360 video game consoles in December. Microsoft's console debuted in November 2005, a full year ahead of the Wii and PS3, which were in short supply during the holidays.
Microsoft,
Sony (
Charts) and
Nintendo (
Charts) are locked in a battle for the top spot in the $30 billion industry's new console war.
Overall video game and hardware sales were $3.7 billion in