Gamertell

In January 2008, the game industry pleasantly surprised analysts by continuing the strong sales trend of the holidays. But the bigger surprise was the fact that the Wii was seriously threatened by the PS3 in the US.

According to NPD’s January hardware and software sales figures, the Wii had a slender sales advantage over the PS3 – barely hanging on to its lead. So analysts from Wedbush Morgan and simExchange got down to dissecting the sudden surge in PS3 sales and below par Wii sales.

Wedbush Morgan’s lead videogame analyst Michael Pachter feels that the Wii’s below par sales in January 2008 could be due to the diversion of Wii units to Japan in a bid to support the launches of Wii Fit and Super Smash Bros. Brawl there. simExchange’s analyst Jesse Divinch seemed to second that view, however, he termed the Wii sales dismal.

Pachter also cited Blu-ray as a major contributor in strong, improved PS3 sales. He believes that Warner Brothers’ recent decision to choose Blu-ray as its official format had strengthened the chances of BD emerging as the next industry standard. This, he noted, will benefit the PS3 and expects Sony to heavily tap this fact in advertising campaigns later in the year.

Read [Gamasutra]