The latest numbers are starting to come out from US tracking service NPD, showing the results of the battle between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.
Thanks to a report on Bloomberg, the following hardware placings can be revealed:
Nintendo DS - 918,000 (+155% from Oct 06) [ 8.1 million sold in the US ]
PlayStation 2 - 664,000 (+182%)
Game Boy Advance - 641,000 (+279%)
Microsoft XBOX 360 - 511,000 (+134%) [ 3.8 million sold in the US ]
Nintendo Wii - 476,000
PlayStation Portable - 411,900 (+219%)
PlayStation 3 - 197,000
This means that Sony missed its goal for initial shipments by around half, since 400,000 were supposed to have been made available at launch on 17th November.
Evan Wilson, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Oregon, who rates Sony shares stated:
"There's no way that Sony will make its forecast for 1 million units in the U.S. this calendar year. They will face supply constraints at least through March."
Nintendo is also struggling to meet demand, though, despite replenshing stock at a rate of 250,000 units per week and Anita Frazier, an analyst at NPD added:
"I have no doubt that many more could have sold if there had been more inventory."
With Nintendo promising two million Wii systems for the US alone by the end of 2006, and four million across the world, it looks to stay leagues ahead of Sony's next-generation format, especially thanks to Sony delaying the European launch of the PS3 until March 2007 at the earliest (with rumours this may be pushed back even further if shortages continue).
Also of interest is how Zelda: The Twilight Princess on Wii sold an amazing 412,000 units, making a profit of $20,200,000! It appears to have only been beaten by Gears of War on 360 (1,000,000 sales) and Final Fantasy XII on PS2 (896,000 units). In addition, whilst the Wii version of Activision's Call of Duty 3 moved 47,800 units, the PS3 edition could only sell through 24,800.
With any luck we will be able to bring you some more sales information soon!
Keep it locked to Cubed3 to see how well the UK launch went, considering Rob Lowe of Nintendo UK stated there was enough Day One stock to beat out the previous fastest-seller in this country, the XBOX 360.
Further news updates are sure to follow...