According to Enterbrain, for the first time in Sony’s home market (Japan) in September, Microsoft Corp’s Xbox 360 outsold Sony’s PlayStation 3, beating the rival machine in monthly unit sales.

According to the data shown by Enterbrain on Friday, Microsoft sold 53,547 units of the Xbox 360 in the four weeks to September 28, compared with 33,071 units of the PS3. Strong sales growth came after Microsoft cut prices for its Xbox 360 last month. Meanwhile, Nintendo Co Ltd safely maintained its first position in the Japanese game console market, having sold 109,548 units of the Wii during the month.

Although popular in the United States, the Xbox 360 has been facing difficulty to compete with the Nintendo’s Wii and the Sony’s PS3 in Japan, home to both Nintendo and Sony. Luckily, the Microsoft’s Xbox 360 received a boost from Square Enix Holdings’ popular role-playing game, “Infinite Undiscovery”, launched in Japan on September 11.

To be able to raise its sales, Microsoft has cut the price of its Xbox 360 Arcade on September 11, which comes minus hard disk drive, by 8,000 yen ($76) to 19,800 yen. Microsoft has also reduced the price of the high-end Xbox 360 Elite model by 8,000 yen to 39,800 yen. On the other hand, Sony packages the PS3 plus 40GB hard disk drive for 39,980 yen, while Nintendo able to offer the Wii for only 25,000 yen.

According to Enterbrain, it seems that sales of the Sony’s PSP have slowed ahead of the planned launch on October 16 in Japan of a new model of the portable machine. In addition, the new Sony’s PSP-3000 will be packaged with an advanced LCD panel and built-in microphone that is more suitable for use outdoors and offers a shorter response time than the existing handheld video game device.

Meanwhile, in the handheld video game market, Nintendo sold 234,477 units of its DS, compared with 109,274 units of Sony’s PlayStation Portable. In addition, Nintendo will launch a new revamped DS on November 1, which can play music and take pictures, potentially affecting the market of Apple Inc’s iPhone and iPod.

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