After all manner of price cuts and other moves designed to get the edge on the competition, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3 continue to be locked in a war for second place in the console market, perpetually behind the Nintendo Wii, which sells better than both of them combined. The bitter clash is a downward spiral though, as console prices for all three brands continue to drop.

Even with the release of Madden NFL 09, which sold very well on all three consoles (except for the Wii but more on that latter), this trend continues. Thus:

July marked a sharp decline in sales for the Wii, from 555,000 to 453,000 units. That may be correlated with the fact that Madden NFL 09 only sold 115,000 copies for the Wii, simply not enough to sustain sales during this difficult period, unlike the 1.68 million copies sold for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Nevertheless, the number of Wii sales still remains way ahead of the competition, a fact which Nintendo continues to advertise despite sale drops.

The one million copies of Madden NFL 09 sold helped a bit more in the case of the Xbox 360, whose sales were only down 5%, from 204,800 to 195,200 units. These figures are very low compared to last year.

Trailing in third place, as usual, but this time not very far behind, is Sony’s PS3, with console sales dropping from 224,900 to 185,400 units. Unfortunately for the PS3, its higher total manufacturing cost means it cannot operate price cuts such as the recent Xbox360 ones in order to save sales. The only hope for reclaiming the PS3’s honor seems to be a very good exclusive title.

With the Wii losing its lead quickly and its two contenders fighting by the skin of their teeth, it should make for a very interesting holiday season in the console market.