It appears that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is lagging behind in the Gaming Console Market. That’s what says the latest data on the gaming console sales released by the Port Washington, NY based global market research company, NPD Group.

NPD’s data articulates that Sony‘s PlayStation 3 was pretty low in list in terms of last month’s U.S. sales, but it did manage get a little bit lift to move ahead Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which was having bad phase second time this year. Nintendo, once again doing better than its rivals, was 34 % up in its last month’s sales compared to its January sales; Nintendo Wii outsold its competitors almost 2 to 1.

According to the NPD report, Nintendo sold 432,000 Wii units, Sony sold 281,000 PS3 units, but Microsoft could sell 255,000 Xbox 360 units. Sony‘s PlayStation 3 outsold Microsoft’s Xbox for the second consecutive month.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier, said, “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.”

Jack Tretton, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America, has recently stated that the recent BluRay victory has helped boosting the PS3 sales. Jack Tretton said, "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."

Explaining the reasons of the Xbox 360’s poor sales, Microsoft reported that as Xbox sells more units worldwide than PS3, they failed to meet sales expectations due to inventory shortages, after an incredible high demand during holiday season. Microsoft cut their console prices in Europe earlier this week, and the company announce price cut in the US market as well.

Frazier said, “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.”