Nintendo Co.'s Wii console sales fell for the eighth straight month in the U.S., as a 20 percent price reduction failed to lift purchases of the world's leading video-game platform.

Sales of Kyoto-based Nintendo's Wii fell 37 percent to 506,900, those of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 rose 70 percent to 320,600, while they dropped 33 percent to 250,000 for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, researcher NPD Group Inc. said this week in an e-mailed statement. Industry hardware, software and accessory revenue in the world's largest video-game market fell 19 percent to $1.07 billion last month.

Video-game industry sales have dropped in seven of the past eight months and are down 13 percent this year through October, NPD said. Nintendo cut the Wii price by $50, to $200 on Sept. 27, to boost sales of the console, which has a 48 percent market share in the U.S.

"Investors are getting used to looking at weak numbers for the Wii," Yusuke Tsunoda, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Securities Co., said by phone today. "The Wii's period of expansion is over and investors' attention has turned to Nintendo's new hardware strategy."

Nintendo dropped 1.3 percent to 23,000 yen as of 10:46 a.m. in Osaka trading, while Sony slid 0.6 percent to 2,540 yen in Tokyo. Microsoft gained 0.8 percent, to close at $29.36 on the Nasdaq Stock Market yesterday.

A lack of new hit releases and tough comparisons to last year contributed to the monthly decline, said Todd Mitchell, an analyst with Kaufman Bros. in New York. Nintendo sold 803,000 Wiis in October last year.