Analyst: Xbox 360 To Outsell Wii On 12-Month Basis In U.S.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 is poised to outsell the Nintendo Wii on a 12-month basis in the U.S. in March, according to a Friday research note from Cowen analyst Doug Creutz. "We believe that [March] will represent the first time since the early days of this console cycle that Xbox 360 hardware will outsell the Wii on a [trailing twelve-month (TTM)] basis," he said. That means the Xbox 360 will have led Wii in total sales in the U.S. from March 2010 to March 2011, if Creutz' forecast comes to fruition. "This illustrates the significant shift that has gone on over the last year in the console space," he said. "The Wii was outselling the 360 and PS3 combined on a TTM basis as recently as January 2010, and was outselling the 360 alone by 2:1 on a TTM basis in December 2009 and 1.5:1 in October 2010." Creutz said that over the last three years, trailing 12-month total hardware sales across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii have been around 17-19 million units, "so this does represent a share shift as opposed to just a decline for the Wii." Microsoft has seen a boost in sales that analysts say is driven by the release of the heavily-marketed Xbox 360 Kinect sensor. Microsoft sold 535,000 Xbox 360s during February in the U.S. to lead console sales, according to NPD Group, representing a 27 percent year-on-year rise. Nintendo Wii was up 14 percent during the month to 454,000. PS3 was up 12 percent to 403,000. "We believe the significant shift in hardware sales towards HD consoles is a positive ongoing development for the U.S. publishers, who earn the majority of their sales on the 360/PS3," Creutz added.