The NPD Data concerning gaming consoles sales for September are out and the big surprise is how much the Microsoft made Xbox 360 managed to outsell the PlayStation 3, reverting the early year trend which put the Sony made console in front in the sales department.

The overall sales of hardware have amounted to around 498 million dollars, which is around 9% less than in the same month of 2007. This drop proves that console manufacturers are not immune to the effects of the global financial crisis. As problems with the economy in the United States grow, people start cutting back on expenses, and entertainment oriented hardware seems to be amongst the first casualties. Still, Anita Frazier, an analyst for the NPD Group, says that the drop is actually due to the price cuts the console manufacturers made, pointing out that “the average retail price of hardware across all platforms declined 8% from last September”.

The Nintendo Wii is still on top in the sales charts, with more than 680,000 units sold in one month while the Nintendo DS handheld managed to get 537,000 units to customers. Nintendo must be pleased with the domination it enjoys while Microsoft is now seeing clearly that no price cut can make the Xbox 360 a competitor for the Wii.

Still, the Microsoft made console managed to sell 347,000 units, taking the third spot in sales ahead of the PlayStation Portable, which managed to only ship around 238,000 units. The good news is that the price cut works on getting more people interested in the Xbox 360 than in the PlayStation 3, which only shipped 232,000 units the last month.

Going into the all important Christmas sales period, the Microsoft made console is well positioned to sell more units than the Sony made hardware device, while the big winner this holiday season is still set to be Nintendo, with the Wii expected to continually dominate the charts.