Hardware sales were way up in year-over-year comparisons in both the US and Canada. Leading the charge in hardware was Nintendo, with it's Wii and DS systems forming a potent one-two punch. Both systems were consistently sold out, and I suspect they could have sold even more units had they been in stock in most stores.

The XBOX 360 continues to sell at a steady pace as more gamers decide that the games are finally compelling enough for them to take the plunge. In Canada, XBOX 360 games took three of the top ten positions on the sales charts for February, while in the US said games took half those ten slots. The XBOX 360's attach rate seems to be growing steadily.

Sony's PlayStation 3 is still trying to get its legs so that it can catch up with the other guys. Granted, many of Sony's woes are Sony's own doing, but all they can do now is wait for compelling games to arrive. Virtua Fighter 5 and Motorstorm are good additions to the PS3's anemic library, but I doubt that they're enough to drive PS3 sales on their own. God of War II could have been such a driver, but of course, it's only on the PS2; they simply couldn't do the volume they'd want on the PS3 at this point.

Nonetheless, it was a good month for the industry as a whole. It will be interesting to see how the large influx of non-traditional gamers into the market will affect game sales and development decisions a year or two down the line. If Nintendo has its way, we could see a point where games like Halo and GTA are being eclipsed in sales by games like Wii Play and Rayman Raving Rabbids!