Although November saw relatively disappointing PS3 sales and analysts were expecting numbers to be slightly lower than or right on track with last year's, Sony says that they've managed to more than double sales during the holuday period. SCEA VP of sales Ian Jackson knows the score.

"Early internal data points to an increase of more than 130 percent of PS3 hardware sales for the holiday season—since Black Friday—and we're also seeing a growth of nearly 40 percent in total PS3 hardware sales for the calendar year. We remain confident this momentum will continue into the new year."

And what about the November dip? Merely an anomaly, created by the sales surge that came in November of last year following the introduction of the 40GB PS3. See? The PlayStation 3 has momentum! As long as December's NPD numbers hold true to Sony's internal data, everything will be just fine.

UPDATE: SCEA contacted us to let us know that the sales jump of 130% reflects the increase between sales before the holiday season and during it, and not year to year as previously reported. The article has been updated to reflect this.

Early returns show strong holiday video game console sales [CNET via Gamasutra]

The Xbox 360's wireless controller was the most purchased video game accessory last month. I'm sorta surprised that more Remote Controllers didn't sell, but there have been reports of stock issues with Wii accessories. Yep, Wii remotes are just flying off.. shelves.

Top 10 Accessory Items - December 2006
360 WIRELESS CONTROLLER 823.8 k
WII REMOTE CONTROLLER 646.7 k
WII NUNCHUK CONTROLLER 497.1 k
PS2 8 MEG MEMORY CARD 474.8 k
PS3 SIXAXIS WIRELESS CONTROLLER 336.0 k
PS2 MEMORY CARD 8 MEG 286.0 k
PS2/PS DUAL SHOCK2 CONTL 263.4 k
PS2/PS BLUE DL SH2 CNTL 245.2 k
360 PLAY & CHARGE KIT 224.6 k
PS2 CORDLESS ACTION CNTLR 219.9 k

Brian Crecente

While the launch-to-launch numbers comparison isn't very pretty for the 360, the straight December-to-December numbers are pretty damn impressive.

According to NPD, the Xbox 360 came out on top across the three next-gen consoles, selling 1.1 million units compared to the Wii's 604,200 and the PS3's 490, 700.

The across-the-board winner for the month though was Nintendo's DS, which sold 1.6 million shiny units, followed by the PS2 which sold a whopping 1.4 million. The PSP came in at a relatively impressive fourth place, stacking up 953, 200 in units sold.

What does this all mean? Well if you're Sony it means you won. If you're Nintendo it means you won. And if you're Microsoft it means, you guessed it, you won. Brian Crecente

GameSpot's report on the December NPD figures show that overall sales were down just four percent (better than I expected) from the previous year. Xbox game sales slipped 33% which is misleading because of the introduction and subsequent selling out of the 360. PlayStation 2 had a 48 percent increase over last year, and companies like Midway and Activision also had better-than-usual months. If the supply had been able to meet demand for Microsoft's new system, I don't think we'd have seen a decline from last year at all.

NPD: December Sales Down 4 Percent, 607,000 360s Sold [GameSpot]