While all consoles bar PS2 recorded a month-over-month sales increase in August, total hardware sales declined 25 per cent year-over-year to $297.60 million, according to the NPD Group.

PS3 sales rose 72 per cent over July levels, to 210,000 units, boosted by the introduction of price cuts across the PS3 range on August 18. A number of retailers also began selling the new PS3 Slim model a week ahead of its official September 1 release date.

To a lesser extent, Xbox 360 price cuts introduced on August 28 also helped drive an increase in month-over-month unit sales, from 202,900 in July to 215,000.

"The price cuts implemented on the PS3 and 360 hardware already made an impact on unit sales, despite having been executed fairly late in the month,” noted NPD analyst Anita Frazier, adding that “it will be interesting to see the full impact of the new price points on September sales."

Nintendo systems continued to lead the hardware rankings. DS and Wii sales each rose by around 15,000 units month-over-month, to 552,900 and 277,400 respectively.

"There is a lot of speculation about Wii and whether Nintendo will take a price cut as sales comps to last year show declines," said Frazier. “I do think it's interesting to note that the Wii is still selling at levels comparable to what the PS2 was doing at about this point in its lifecycle."

Elsewhere, PSP sales rose by around 20,000 units to 140,300, while PS2 sales declined marginally to 105,900.

DS – 552,900
Wii – 277,400
Xbox 360 – 215,000
PS3 – 210,000
PSP – 140,300
PS2 – 105,900

July 2009 hardware sales data