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The popularity of the new BioShock 2 game may have been behind Microsoft’s sales of 422,000 Xbox 360s in February, an eight percent increase from a year earlier, according to NPD Group. Nintendo sold 397,900 Wiis and Sony sold 360,100 PlayStation 3 consoles in February.

The BioShock 2 game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was released on Feb. 10 and sold 750,000 units. Of those, 75 percent, or 562,900, were for the Xbox 360.

“We’re excited about the biggest February in Xbox 360 history,” said Dennis Durkin, COO of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business, in an e-mail. “We know consumers are hungry for our 2010 portfolio of exclusive blockbuster games, industry-leading online experiences over Xbox LIVE, and for the holiday release of Project Natal for Xbox 360.”

A Sense of Excitement

While BioShock 2 has created a buzz among gamers, so have sensing controllers. Microsoft’s Project Natal system will let Xbox players use body motions to control the game instead of pressing buttons or waving a controller.

Microsoft wasted no time in getting celebrities to praise Project Natal’s potential. Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard called the technology “amazing”; former NFL quarterback Willie Gault said it was one of the “most realistic game experiences” he has had; and pro beach volleyball player Misty-May Treanor said it’s great for someone who, like her, is in physical therapy.

This week, Sony revealed additional information about its own new motion-control sensor. Dubbed the PlayStation Move, Sony first provided details last June. The controller allows PS3 gamers to use an Eye web camera and a wand to detect motion.

The controller will be packaged as a starter kit with a PlayStation Eye, a PlayStation Move controller, and a demonstration disc. The black controller is similar to the Wii wand, developed in 2006, and will be priced below $100, according to Sony.

Nintendo Falls Behind in U.S.

Microsoft executives may be beaming with their new position in the gaming market, but Nintendo still leads worldwide. Nintendo has sold more than 67.5 million Wii consoles worldwide, compared with more than 39 million Xbox 360s and 33 million PS3s, according to NPD.

But that success does not come without challenges. Last month the U.S. gaming industry saw a 15 percent drop in revenue to $1.26 billion, according to NPD. The drop was a result of a 15 percent decrease in sales of gaming software and a bad month for Nintendo.

December was a record-breaker for Nintendo with 3.81 billion units sold. When that was followed by a 31 percent decrease in sales in January, analysts speculated Nintendo didn’t have enough inventory to meet demand. That was confirmed by Nintendo America President Reggie Fils-Aimé.

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Now, with the looming launch of a tablet-style computer — already nicknamed the “iPhone on steroids,” with a bigger screen that might have a place in the living room — Apple could pose an even tougher challenge to established players in the video game business.

That assumes, however, that potential buyers aren’t scared off by a price that might be more than the cost of a Wii, a PlayStation 3 and an Xbox 360 combined. Apple isn’t commenting on its unveiling Wednesday.

Apple’s iPhone and the similar iPod Touch brought a new look to games because they have an accelerometer inside that lets people control the action by turning or tilting the device. With a touch screen and the computing horsepower for high-quality graphics, the iPhone lends itself to pared-down versions of console games like “Assassin’s Creed” and “The Sims 3.” Its size, meanwhile, makes it easy to consume addictive puzzles in 5-minute increments while waiting for the dentist or riding the subway.

Now the iPhone, which costs $99, $199 or $299 plus a monthly service plan, rivals gadgets such as the Nintendo DS ($130-$170) or PlayStation Portable ($170-$250), known as the PSP, which were created solely for playing games on the go. It’s unclear whether Apple has taken substantial market share away, but the iPhone likely introduced people to mobile games who wouldn’t have played otherwise.

“We’ve seen the iPhone and iPod Touch as kind of a starter kit for video games,” says John Koller, director of hardware marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America. “When those customers are ready to graduate into a deeper experience, the PSP is there for them.”

Soon a tablet may be there for them, too. A touch-screen gadget that is bigger than an iPhone could provide a larger playing field for gamers and give game developers a new way to push the limits of their creativity.

“Any game where there are multiple moving objects on the screen, or a map to explore, will especially be a better experience,” says Ian Lynch Smith, the president of Freeverse, a developer of iPhone and Mac games. “Also the more high end, cinematic games will benefit directly from the more immersive screen size.”

Apple profits from games because it takes a cut of apps that are sold on the iPhone, where games generally cost between 99 cents and $9.99. Last year the company hired Graeme Devine, a developer with 25 years of experience and games such as “Halo Wars” and “Quake 3″ under his belt, to work on “iPhone gaming technologies.”

Of course, the tablet is likely to be about much more than gaming, but the same increasingly can be said about video game consoles. Makers of home video game systems are trying to sell their products as all-in-one entertainment devices.

Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 (starting at $200) and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 (starting at $300) both offer streaming movies from Netflix, for example, and Nintendo Co.’s Wii ($200) is set to start in the spring. Sony markets the PS3 as the “most fully loaded console,” one that “only does everything,” including Blu-ray movies, Facebook updates or Web browsing.

Given that Apple will have to persuade people they need another gadget in their lives, the company is also likely to bill the tablet as a do-everything device, a way for people to manage music, video, games, communication and Web browsing. And while it will be portable in a way game consoles are not, “it makes sense that it would be connected to the TV eventually,” says Peter Relan, chairman of Aurora Feint, the developer of a large social game network for the iPhone.

Smith thinks hard-core gamers will still own a console and use it as the primary gaming platform at home “for some years to come.”

“But I can see the tablet taking almost all of the casual to moderate gamer market,” he says.

The challenge for console makers will be to respond with innovation. One avenue could be in increasingly sophisticated motion controls, such as Microsoft’s upcoming “Project Natal,” which lets people manipulate on-screen avatars using their bodies. Natal is set to debut on the Xbox this holiday season.

“Games have become the killer pursuit on all new devices,” says Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga, the company behind popular Facebook games such as “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars.” “They are the reason people buy major new hardware from the Xbox to the iPhone.”

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In the grainy, jerky video noticed by Gossip Gamer, a player gesticulates not unlike Tom Cruise in Minority Report, signaling with his arms and flexing his digits to pan his view around the rebel research lab visited toward the beginning of the dystopian sci-fi shooter. He holds his right arm rigid, almost like a breakdancer about to do the robot, swinging it left or right and slightly up or down to maneuver the camera in turn. His index and middle fingers appear extended, gun-like, while the other fingers curl under. The motion capture device itself–presumably (though not verifiably) the Natal camera–rests on a tripod below the screen just a few feet in front of him.

At about the 0:30 mark, his left hand makes an appearance (it’s hidden by his body, interposed between it and whoever’s filming) and illustrates fine-motion control. His right arm aims the camera, while the left “grabs” the view and shifts it in smaller increments, allowing him to “feel around” the table and explore more carefully. It’s not apparent how he’s moving forward or backward, but I’m assuming that’s done with the (hidden) left hand too.

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