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Nintendo Wii outsells PlayStation3

Gaming fans pose for photographer as they line up to purchase a Nintendo Wii console in the early hours of Friday in London. Nintendo is bringing a total 4 million units to markets around the world before the end of the year. PHOTO: AFP

Wii outsold rival PlayStation 3 by more than double in the US last month as the freshly launched videogame consoles vied with Xbox 360 for devotees, figures released on Friday showed.

Nintendo sold 476,140 of its Wii consoles in the US last month while Sony managed to sell 196,580 of its new PlayStations, the industry tracking group NPD said.

During the month, Microsoft sold 511,300 of its Xbox 360 consoles, which it brought to market a year ago. Wii and PlayStation 3 were released for sale in the US in the middle of last month.

Manufacturing problems curtailed the number of PlayStation 3 systems available for the US and Japan launches and prompted Sony to postpone the consoles' Europe debut next year.

Wii consoles were snatched-up quickly after their debut in Europe on Friday as the innovative system featuring motion-responsive controllers gained status as the must-have video game.

But some fans of Wii are having trouble holding onto the videogame console's wireless controller, which can be swung as a bat or racquet in sports games.

The controller's wrist strap tends to snap during vigorous play, according to postings on Web sites including Somethingawful.com. One user said the screen to his 60-inch TV set was cracked when the controller flew from a friend's hand as the strap broke during play. Photos that accompanied the posting showed the broken TV and severed wrist strap.

Nintendo is looking into a remedy for the problem, president Satoru Iwata said during a Tokyo news conference on Friday, the New York Times Web site reported.
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