Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 emerged as the top-seller in the segment of consoles in the U. S. last month, though the overall sales in the games and consoles market plunged 1%, a consecutive fall for the fourth month. Nintendo Co.’s Wii also faced a lash, with the decreasing sales and Microsoft’s dominance.

Last month, the sales in the consoles segment climbed up 12%, while that of games slumped 8%, counterbalancing the net effect.

As stated by New York-based researcher NPD Group Inc., the sales of the Xbox 360 rose two-fold to 443,500 units. On the other hand, only 253,900 Wii players were purchased in the same period. The sales of Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 mounted up to 214,500 units in July.

Anita Frazier, NPD's games analyst, said, "It's the first time since September 2007, when Microsoft launched Halo 3, that the 360 was the top-selling hardware platform.”

The trend reflected that the hardware sales performed well, while the software sales remained low, as expressed by Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities.

To boost the sales performance, Nintendo is likely to modify its handheld-player line-up with a model, so that users can enjoy the 3-D images and that to without using special glasses. The Companies like Sony and Microsoft are expected to launch motion controllers in the second half of the year, to give a push to their sales.

In July, Electronic Arts Inc.’s “NCAA Football 11” gained the position of best-selling game by selling 368,000 copies for the Xbox and 298,800 for PS3. Also, the 721,000 units of the PC game “StarCraft II” were sold.