The PlayStation 2 took second place in hardware race with 280,000 units sold, outselling new console competitor, the Wii, which shifted some 259,000 units to nab third. Solid, but down 22% from February. Behind the Wii was the Xbox 360, just a hair shy of 200,000 units sold (down 12% from the previous month) and the PSP with 180,000.

The bad hardware news for Sony came from their new PLAYSTATION 3, which saw 130,000 consoles fall into new customer hands, seeing a 2% sales increase over the previous month. That's well below the performance of Nintendo's Game Boy Advance which was still going strong to the tune of some 148,000 handhelds.

Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime said of his company's solid hardware performance, "The message delivered by both Wii and Nintendo DS is the same one; Innovation is compelling both current gamers and new gamers to experience a new way to play. Nintendo is bringing gaming back to the masses."

Response from Sony after the jump.

David Karraker, senior director of corporate communications at SCEA, said of the figures, "According to NPD data, March 2007 showed a 24% increase in retail dollars generated year-over-year for the PlayStation brand in North America with total sales of $447 million, due in part to the addition of the PS3 platform as well as the strong launch performance of God of War II for PS2 at retail."

Addressing PS3 sales, Karraker wrote "While PS3 saw a month-over-month increase of 2% with sales of 129,638 units, we continued to find ourselves supply constrained in March due primarily to the shift in manufacturing focus to the PS3 PAL version to support the launch of the system in Europe."

Finally, on the recently price-reduced PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2: "PSP also witnessed gains in March, up 2% over February with sales of 179,796 units. The price of the PSP Core system was dropped from $199 to $169 in early April, which has received very positive retailer and consumer response. PS2 continued to be a strong performer in March, with unit sales of 279,866. On the software front, we were pleased to see sales increases from February for both the PSP and PS2. PS2 software showed a 29% increase with the launch of God of War II and PSP software demonstrated a 13% jump."

Interesting take. Where exactly was the PS3 "supply constrained" again? I've been under the impression that the console was rather easy to get your hands on (unless you're bedridden or trapped in a well).

Here are the full hardware and software numbers released by NPD in easy-to-read list format.

Hardware Sales For March

1. Nintendo DS - 508K
2. PlayStation 2 - 280K
3. Wii - 259K
4. Xbox 360 - 199K
5. PlayStation Portable - 180K
6. Game Boy Advance - 148K
7. PlayStation 3 - 130K
8. GameCube - 22K

Top 10 Software Sales For March

1. (PS2) God of War II - 833K
2. (360) Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter - 394K
3. (360) Guitar Hero II w/ guitar - 291K
4. (WII) Wii Play w/ remote - 273K
5. (PS3) Motorstorm - 199K
6. (NDS) Diddy Kong Racing - 189K
7. (NDS) Spectrobes - 165K
8. (360) Major League Baseball 2K7 - 165K
9. (PS2) MLB '07: The Show -164K
10. (360) Def Jam ICON - 148K

Wow. 833,000 copies of God of War II in a month? I guess that pretty much confirms God of War III is on its way.

UPDATE: David Karraker from Sony Computer Entertainment contacted us to clarify what the term "supply constrained" actually means. Here's the official explanation.

The industry standard for a product to be considered to be in an "in-stock" position for a store is 30 units per store. This would be the level you would see for a PS2 or Xbox 360. At this level, retailers will feature a product in their weekly advertising circulars. If you are not at this level, retailers can't guarantee consumers will find one if they go into the store and they most likely won't support your product in weekly ads. Although you can indeed find PS3s in stores currently, we are no where near an "in-stock" position. 300,000 PS3s were sold into retailers the final week of March, so you should see increased marketing support from retailers in April.

So, there you go. Thanks, David.

April should be an equally interesting month, as notable releases such as Super Paper Mario and Pokemons Diamond and Pearl will most likely push Nintendo hardware, with the Xbox 360 Elite and new PS3 shipments looking to affect retail sales. Michael McWhertor

First to summarize: We posted a rumor after Sony asked us not to and they emailed to say we were no longer welcome at any of their private GDC events and that they would no longer provide us with any information found outside of the public forums.

We posted said e-mail and the Internet imploded.

First, I have to say thank you to all of the websites, newspapers, magazines, people who were so quick to come to our defense and supported our decision to stand by our story.

Second, I want to thank Dave Karraker, head of SCEA PR, who was big enough to call me and talk the whole thing through after this exploded.

He told me his take on the story and his frustrations and I told him mine, in the end we agreed to disagree on some level, but also decided that our readers and gamers in general would be best served if Sony and Kotaku could still play nicely together.

In a nutshell: The story remains up and Sony has re-invited us to the meetings and interviews initially scheduled for the Game Developers Conference.

It's unfortunate that we, not just Kotaku and Sony, but all of us had to go through this, but it's good to see the outcome: We were doing our job and Sony was doing theirs and now we can both continue to do so. Brian Crecente

The New York Times is reporting that the Nintendo Wii has "upset the order of the video game world" leading them to claim that the only console seaworthy of navigating the Blue Ocean is leading the PLAYSTATION 3 in buzz and sales. Even moms love it!

"You're up and you're moving, and it makes you feel more involved," said Tracy Ciardiello, 28, a stay-at-home mother [...] "After an hour, a thing pops on the screen that says, 'Why not take a rest?' That just made me laugh."

Sony Computer Entertainment America's David Karraker, on the other hand, isn't showing Wii quite the same love, claiming that it may be "considered an impulse buy more than anything else." SCEA couldn't be more right. I've been witness to no less than thirty people on three separate occasions just impulsively snapping up Wiis after waiting for hours outside my local Best Buy. My assumption was always that they were getting up early to hoard additional copies of Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight and thought "Maybe I'll grab a Wii since I'm out of bed at 6 AM on a Sunday!" Michael McWhertor

Nintendo's Wii, Radiating Fun, Is Eclipsing Sony Machine [NYT]