It's the middle of the month and numbers for last month have finally surfaced. Obviously, the biggest "war" going on is the one between the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and Nintendo Game Boy Advance. Yeah, normally I wouldn't include the GBA but that thing is a beast. It refuses to lie down and die like most "last-generation" systems do. Then again, maybe you should see what went on last month for yourself!

Xbox 360: 295,381 [1,504,724]
PlayStation 2: 206,995 [39,458,926]
Game Boy Advance: 169,115 [37,455,961]
PlayStation Portable: 162,438 [4,332,872]
Nintendo DS: 138,427 [4,447,092]
Xbox: 38,987 [15,737,984]
GameCube: 38,028 [12,046,319]

Now that you've had a chance to look at the numbers, let's look at them a bit more closely. The handheld front is as close as ever. Yet again, like it has for the past nine or so months, the GBA has come out on top. This piece of last generation technology continues to outsell both the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. The PSP and DS had some interesting points though. If I remember correctly, April was the month in which the PSP's core system was released in the United States. However, its sales are still lower than the month before it. The Nintendo DS also saw decreased sales, although I'd have expected worse for a system which should be replaced by the DS Lite in just a little bit. The PSP is catching up slowly but surely. Unlike Japan, where both handhelds launched in the same month, the DS had a head start in the US. Whether or not the PSP can take the lead with no killer app is a question though. New Super Mario Bros. launched today (Wednesday for Canadians). The DS Lite launches in June. If Brain Age takes off, the PSP is in trouble. Especially if Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core is not ready in time to combat Pokemon: Diamond and Pokemon Pearl. The GBA... Well. I have no idea what to do about that thing. It's like the Energizer Rabbit... It just keeps going and going and going. It doesn't even have any major game releases left unless Nintendo localizes Mother 3. At least Japan has moved on. The GBA only sells around 15,000 weekly while the DS sells around 180,000 weekly and the PSP 35,000 weekly.

The Xbox 360 shortages are finally over! This has of course caused a small spike in sales and the 360 has beaten the PS2 for the month. Sales have been reportedly quite strong for the first two weeks of April, but weaker for the last two. With shortages over, the Xbox 360 will finally have the opportunity to grow. Of course, with the success of the Xbox 360 comes the death of last generation consoles such as the Xbox and Gamecube (the PlayStation 2 is like the GBA... freakin' rabbits). The Xbox has just about no exclusives left and the Gamecube has a few, like Super Paper Mario which was announced at E3, but nothing that will help it at this point in its life. Those who want it should likely be waiting for the backward compatible Wii.

The summer months usually see a drought in the game industry. So don't be surprised if you see few titles worth getting in the next couple of months. And stop screaming for US sales every time I post Japanese ones! These only come once a month, so you'll see more mid-June! Also remember these are only US sales. Canadian sales are not included.