A man walks past Nintendo's "Wii" game console displayed at a game shop in Tokyo's Akihabara electronic district June 25, 2007.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Nintendo Co.'s Wii game console outsold Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 by a ratio of three to one in August in Japan, but the Nintendo Wii's overwhelming lead in the market narrowed as the Sony PlayStation 3 sales climbed, according to a Tokyo-based research firm Monday.

The Wii has outsold PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 since its Japanese introduction in December on the success of "Wii Sports" and the "Mario" games.

Nintendo, the world's biggest maker of handheld games, sold 245,653 Wii machines, compared with Sony's 81,541 PlayStation consoles in the four weeks to Aug. 26, researcher Enterbrain Inc. said on Monday.

The ratio was more than four to one in favour of the Wii in July and six to one in June.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft sold 11,288 Xbox 360s in Japan in August, Enterbrain said.

Due to high price and skimp scarcity of strong game titles, Sony's PS3, packed with cutting-edge technology such as a Blu-ray high-definition DVD player, has been trailing the Wii in sales since the consoles were introduced late last year.

But the Tokyo-based electronics and entertainment conglomerate plans to launch a wide range of new games towards the critical year-end shopping season, including the latest installment of its popular in-house racing game "Gran Turismo".

"Gran Turismo 5," one of the most eagerly awaited titles for the PS3, is set to go on sale in October, in a bid to ignite PS3 demand among devoted game fans.