Following NPD’s games industry report for North America in February, Nintendo and Sony have responded in bullish fashion and spoken positively about the year ahead.

Nintendo, whose DS and Wii were the clear hardware leaders for the month selling over a million between them, said in a statement: “Our momentum has not let up since the holidays and we expect it to continue throughout the year. We have the industry’s strongest line-up of games for everyone from core to casual gamers.”

Sony was also in high spirits after seeing PS3 outsell Xbox 360 for the second month in succession. Its statement read: “PS3 outsold Xbox 360 for the second straight month with 280,841 hardware units sold in February, ten per cent higher than Microsoft.

“Consumers are recognising 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. This is the year for PS3.”