PS3 beat 360 and Wii in September says Pachter

Only 60,000 units separate all three platforms.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has published his September video game sales preview for the US market, predicting a strong month for the PS3.

Pachter estimates PS3 console sales of 410,000 units, a 76 per cent increase year-over-year. This should be enough to topple both the Wii (390,000 units) and Microsoft's Xbox 360 (350,000 units).

"We believe that the recent round of price cuts may benefit the PS3 the most in coming months, given that unit sales last year were only 1.5 million for the September – December 2008 period. The Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 for the past 13 months, likely due to a higher perceived value proposition," explained Pachter.

He added: "We think that the PS3 will outsell the Xbox 360 in September, and may continue to do so for the rest of the year. Microsoft has the ability to lower price yet again, but we anticipate the introduction of a more feature-packed Xbox 360 in early 2010 (likely with a 250Gb hard drive) at the same $299 price point; we think that Microsoft will cut price only if it begins to lose significant market share to Sony."

Final figures from the NPD Group are expected on October 15.