As the NPD Group released its latest data about the gaming console sales, the Xbox 360’s situation does not look very good. Sony‘s PlayStation 3 was far from being top of the list in terms of last month’s U.S. sales, but it did manage something: go ahead of Microsoft’s Xbox 360, for the second time this year. According to a report released by NPD, Nintendo once again managed to outsell its rivals, in a month that brought a 34 percent increase in sales compared to January.

In fact, Nintendo Wii outsold its competitors almost 2 to 1. While Wii sold 432,000 units, Sony manages to sell 281,000 PS3s and Microsoft was lagging far behind with only 255,000 units. “While hardware inventory issues at retail may still be lingering post-holiday, the fact that all now-gen systems generated significant year-over-year hardware sales increases indicates the situation is coming into balance faster than it did last year,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

Is Microsoft’s gaming console in trouble? The thing that surprises us the most is that Sony managed to outsell Microsoft’s Xbox for the second consecutive month, and if we take into consideration Microsoft’s own estimations that a fresh supply of consoles is to be expected in April, we’ll just have to wait and see how Sony does then. It remains to be seen if these figures reflect Sony’s PS3 upward trend or just a circumstantial position on the market.

In an official statement, Jack Tretton, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America, explained that the recent BluRay victory has boosted also the PS3 sales.

"Consumers are recognizing the tremendous value of PS3 and we believe that Blu-ray becoming the high-def format of choice was the tipping point for many consumers," said Jack Tretton.

Microsoft was quick to explain the Xbox 360’s poor sales: first of all, the Xbox sells more units worldwide than PS3, which lead them to the conclusion that these figures don’t say much about the overall preferences of gamers. Secondly, Microsoft failed to meet sales expectations due to inventory shortages, after an incredible high demand during holiday season.

Earlier this week, Microsoft slashed the price of its gaming console in Europe and as the release of GTA IV is closing is very probable that the company will announced a similar move for the US market.

On the handheld front, the unbeatable champion Nintendo DS sold 588,00 units, while the PSP is lagging far behind with only 243,000 units.

A big surprise is represented by the PS2 sales. PS3’s older brother sold 352,000 units which says a lot about its popularity.

“I was most surprised by the PS2 hardware sales numbers this month. While it certainly has earned its spot among the now-gen slate of console systems because of it staying power in the marketplace, the fact that it realized such significant growth this month is really a testament to its broad adoption and the response of consumers to promotional activity at retail,” Frazier explained.

Maybe Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was beaten, but in terms of games sales, the Xbox 360 are still best sellers as the first places in the Top 10 were achieved by Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare  with 296,000 units and Devil May Cry 4 with 295,200 units.

Wii Play ranked third with 289.7000 units, while PS3 has only one title in Top 10; Devil May Cry 4 with 233,500 units made it to the fourth spot.