The month right after the booming December 2007 sales season was bound to a little slower for the video games industry, and the NPD Group confirms that 2008 didn't exactly start out with a bang for the console makers.  While December 2007 saw console hardware sales in the millions, not one of the major platforms managed to break 300,000 units last month.

While sales were generally down, Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 3 did score a major victory against Microsoft by trumping the Xbox 360 in sales.  Microsoft has already smoothed the rough edges by explaining that sales were bound to be negatively impacted by hardware shortages at North American retail, which they expect to clear up by this Spring.  To be sure, supply constraits are indeed proving to be an issue for many consoles following the holiday rush.  The PS3 even managed to best Nintendo's handheld behemoth, the DS, to snag second place last month.  Nintendo still grabs first place overall with the Wii, but the gap between it and the PS3 is smaller than ever. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter attributes the Wii's slim lead to Nintendo's diverting of consoles to Japan in order to support the Japanese Wii Fit and Super Smash Bros. Brawl launches.

Console software sales were also much slower last month compared to November and December 2007.  Despite this, the industry last month was still better than it was during the same period in 2007.  Activision remains top dog publisher with plenty of its titles breaking into NPD's top ten; the best-selling console game for January '08 remains Call of Duty 4, incidentally for the Xbox 360.  Microsoft's platform nabbed last place in the hardware race, but it had the most software titles in the top ten.  The Wii also made a decent showing with both Wii Play and Super Mario Galaxy from Nintendo, and Activision's Guitar Hero III as the best-selling third party title for the platform in third place.  Activision would lay to having the only PS3 title on NPD's top ten last month as well, with the PS3 version of Call of Duty 4 coming in eighth place.

January 2008 US Hardware Sales

1. Nintendo Wii - 274,000 units
2. Sony PlayStation 3 - 269,000 units
3. Nintendo DS - 251,000 units
4. Sony PlayStation Portable - 230,000 units
5. Microsoft Xbox 360 - 230,000 units

January 2008 US Game Software Sales

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat (Xbox 360) - 331,000 units
2. Wii Play with Wii Remote (Nintendo Wii) - 298,000 units
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Nintendo Wii) - 240,000 units
4. Rock Band (Xbox 360) - 184,000 units
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360) - 183,000 units
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo Wii) - 172,000 units
7. Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360) - 144,000 units
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat (Sony PlayStation 3) - 140,000 units
9. Mario Party DS (Nintendo DS) - 139,000 units
10. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Nintendo DS) - 133,000 units