For gamers, Wii is No. 1

As it turns out, people are more than willing to pick up a wireless controller and swing it like a bat -- or a tennis racket for that matter.

Nintendo's surprisingly popular Wii game consoles have pulled ahead of its competitors for the second month in a row. The company sold 335,000 Wii consoles in February, compared with 228,000 Xbox 360 consoles made by Microsoft and 127,000 PlayStation 3 consoles made by Sony, according to the NPD Group.

Despite superior graphics on PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 -- which also come with hefty price tags -- Wii has managed to win over customers with its wireless controller, cajoling them off of their couches and enticing them to move about their living rooms as if they were playing a real sport.

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research, said Nintendo's success can be pinned to its vision for a new future in gaming.

"The real challenge was would enough people try out the new console," he said. "It's something new and different. It's not an evolution of the old console that goes back 15 years."

So far, people have been adapting enthusiastically to the Wii, figuring out the tricks to hitting a power serve in tennis or positioning themselves at the right angle to bowl a strike.

Since its November release, 1.9 million Wii consoles have been sold through February, according to the NPD Group. Sony released PlayStation 3 at the same time, selling 1.1 million consoles from November through February. Microsoft introduced Xbox 360 a year earlier than its two main competitors, selling more than 5 million units from November 2005 through February.

Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, said the Wii is very good at satisfying basic needs, while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation provide a level of sophistication. "The Wii is like a jeep and the Xbox and PlayStation are like a Maserati and a Ferrari," he said.

One explanation for the Wii's recent lead, he said, is its price. Nintendo is offering the console for $250 while Sony has priced its high-end PlayStation 3 for $599. Microsoft's high-end Xbox 360 costs $399.

"They're less expensive than the other two, so that helps," Pachter said, of Nintendo, adding that the Wii does not require special equipment like a high-definition TV.

Once the Sony and Microsoft come down in price, Pachter said the competition will level off. He said he expects to see PlayStation 3's price start to fall to $400 in the next year-and-a-half to two years.

But Gartenberg said that price isn't everything, noting that Nintendo had lagged behind last year with its GameCube, even though it was cheaper than its competitors.

"Price sensitivity is important, but it's important to a certain point," he said.

Gartenberg said that it is still too early to say how long Nintendo will hold its lead and that it might take until the end of the year, or even the end of next year, to see which console the mass market will jump on.

"We're still early in the game console cycle," he said. "This is going to be a protracted console war."