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NPD: PS3 and 360 on equal footing

As DS and Madden romp results.

August NPD figures show cheapened consoles selling well, outrageously, as Xbox 360 and PS3 finish almost neck-and-neck with 215,000 and 210,000 units sold in the US.

But Nintendo is streets ahead as DS posts winning sales of 552,000 units, and Wii comfortably leads home rivals with 277,000 units sold.

The PSP pales in comparison by selling 140,000 units, and PS2 sits at the bottom the August pile with 106,000 units sold.

Sales were stronger in August 2008, then, but all formats performed better this month than they did in July. Plus, the PS3 Slim didn't launch until 1st September, so those results wait until next month.

Madden NFL 10 predictably bossed the software chart, finishing top on 360, third on PS3 and sixth on PS2. That trio combined to sell 1.5m sales, but EA boss John Riccitiello called the result "discouraging".

Batman: Arkham Asylum performed well to take fourth on 360 and fifth on PS3, with a gap of only 10,000 sales between them.

Rounding out the bottom half of the chart out are Dissidia: Final Fantasy at seven, Wii Fit at eight, Mario Kart Wii at nine and Fossil Fighters on DS at 10.

Microsoft, the sole NPD commenter, focused on strong year-on-year sales; Xbox 360 has sold 17 per cent more from January to August this year than last.