By Kevin Cho

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 video- game console won market share from Nintendo Co.'s Wii player and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 in the U.S. in November as price cuts helped attract users.

The PlayStation 3 controlled 21 percent of the market for the latest generations of players in the U.S. last month, from 12 percent in October, according to calculations based on data from researcher NPD Group Inc. Wii's share fell to 44 percent from 52 percent. Sales of the PS3 almost quadrupled in November, compared with the Wii's 89 percent gain.

Sony, based in Tokyo, outsold the Wii for the first time in Japan last month after cutting the PS3 price in October and unveiling a cheaper model. Shipments of the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 doubled in November as sales picked up in the days after Thanksgiving, when consumers start shopping for Christmas.

``The combination of the price cut and seasonal lift gave the PS3 the biggest October-to-November sales increase of any hardware platform,'' Anita Frazier, an analyst at NPD, wrote in an e-mailed statement.

U.S. retailers sold 466,000 PlayStation 3s last month, while Wii sales rose to 981,000 consoles, according to data from Port Washington, New York-based NPD. Wii outsold the PS3 by almost four-to-one in October.

Sony lowered the price for the PlayStation 3 by $100 to $499 in October and introduced a $399 model last month. The PlayStation outsold the Wii in the period from Oct. 29 to Nov. 25, according to Tokyo-based researcher Enterbrain Inc.

Combined U.S. sales of the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 reached 2.2 million units in November, from 1 million in October, according to NPD. Nintendo is based in Kyoto.

PlayStation 3 and Wii were introduced in November 2006, a year after Xbox 360. PlayStation 3 initially sold in versions that cost $599 and $499. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, dropped the price of the cheapest Xbox 360 to $280 from $300 in August.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aTnhEyskdX1I&refer=us

 Will this ever gonna be the same every month? Why do they always wanna deceive us, we aren't fool!!!

Yeah that makes sense. I guess they are playing with percentages similar to how as the margin gets wider the percentage goes up. If they keep trailing behind the wii and 360 they will surely catch up.

PS3 will catch up because Xbox 360 isn't doing nothing in Japan as PS3 is doing there. But its going to take some time before the PS3 takes over Xbox 360 in America.

But other than that, it I see some light for Sony they just have to bring out the promising software.

So they're still behind, just by a smaller ratio

I don't think the PS3 will catch the 360 in the U.S. before this generation is over. The Wii has been crushing the 360 for quite some time and it still hasn't caught the 360 in cumulative sales in the U.S. The PS3 continues to fall further and further behind. Even if it manages to start out selling the 360 on a monthly basis in the U.S. it will be very difficult or them overcome the 360's growing lead.

That's some class A pr work, cannot be denied.

It all ehlps build a positive image of the PS3 in people's minds, and it will help boost sales.

how can they gain market share on teh wii if teh wii out sold them again.....unles they mean it got beat by a smaller marging??? Man my head is all sorts of spinned right now

Don't worry about it dude, just know that your system is selling better than the PS3.

 Please define "generation is over". Are you thinking of 7+ years or a 4 years Xbox generation? If it's 4 years you might be right but then again, this only means the 360 is already over 50% of it's generation and will sell about 30M before the 360 is abruptly replaced be the 720. And if you talking about 7+ years, then I think only the PS3 has some legs to last that long.

Its interesting spin. They actually didn't gain market share on the wii, their share of sales month to month increased.

Crunhing the numbers:

Wii: 981,000
Xbox 360: 770,000
PlayStation 3: 466,000

Total Sales: 2217000
Wii % of November sales:44%
360 % of November sales:35%
PS3 % of November sales:21%

They are not saying the PS3's TOTAL market share increased to 21% (though it sounds like they are), they are saying Sony sold a larger % of consoles in November than it did in October.

Translation: Sony did not get outsold by such ase big of a margin in November, but was still outsold.