The February console sales numbers from the NPD Group are out for the U.S. and surprisingly, it proclaims the Xbox 360 the leader in February sales with 422,000 consoles sold, which beats the Wii in second place with only 397,900 sold. The PlayStation 3 finished in third with only 360,100 consoles sold. The news is good for Microsoft, as recently some analysts have claimed that the Xbox 360 sales had stalled and the PlayStation 3 was gaining momentum that would carry it to an eventual victory over both the Xbox 360 and Wii.

While the Xbox 360 has won a round in February, and the sales of the Wii have dropped off, it is unclear exactly what impact the sales numbers tell as far as predicting the future of console sales. The win by the Xbox 360 was powered by the impact significant software releases as well as some promotions that were run by retailers discounting the console. The win by Microsoft is only its first of the New Year and only the second time that the Xbox 360 has bested the Wii in sales. With the win for February, Microsoft has added 90,000 consoles to its overall sales total since the first of the year.

With some analysts crowing about the PlayStation 3 gaining ground and sales momentum, it surely does not seem that this is translating into the kind of push necessary for the PlayStation 3 to take the overall lead as they are predicting. While the end game has yet to be written, we have to think that the PlayStation 3 will have to start to sell some serious numbers in order to catch both the Xbox 360 and the Wii.

Right now, we just don’t see this adding up. E3 in June will have a lot to say on the future of both consoles, and it would seem that both companies are banking hard on the popularity of motion capture/motion controller devices as the big driver for sales this holiday season; but without popular software to support these devices we have to think that sales could remain flat or stay about the same.