Microsoft trumpets strong October sales

Despite dropping back to third place in overall hardware sales for October, Microsoft isn't crying too much over the latest NPD sales report. Why not? Well, a press release issued by the company lists plenty of reasons, including:

• Higher overall sales ($354 million in hardware and software combined) than the competition ($246 million for Wii, $116 million for PS3)
  

• New-gen software revenue ($162 million) that beat the Wii and PS3 combined ($90 million for Wii, $48 million for PS3)

• Halo 3 is still the best-selling game in the country, with 434,000 units sold in October
  

• The Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero III proved the most popular, with 383,000 units in sales

The press release also includes the somewhat misleading claim that "PS3 and Wii combined had one third party title in the top ten console title list for the month, while Xbox 360 weighed in with two." While technically true, if you include the PS2, Sony's system wins with three games* in the top ten, and if you include first-party games, the Wii wins with four top-tenners. It's like saying your baseball team has the best left-handed pitchers born on Thursdays in February -- interesting, but kind of meaningless when you really look at it.

* Including both bundled and standalone versions of Guitar Hero III