San Francisco - U.S. video game sales rose 31% in June from a year ago, to $1.1 billion, buoyed by strong sales of next-generation consoles from all three major players, Reuters reported, citing data from market research firm NPD Group.

The Nintendo Wii continued its several-months-long run in the top spot, selling 381,000 units, an increase of 13% from May, while Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold 198,400 units (up 28%) and Sony's PlayStation 3 sold 98,500 units (up 20%).

Sony additionally told Reuters that its 17% price cut on the PlayStation 3 drove sales up 135% at its five largest retailers during the last two weeks in July.

Amongst all game hardware, Nintendo's DS handheld led with sales of 561,900 units in June; Sony's PSP handheld sold 290,100 units.

Nintendo also had six of the ten top-selling game software titles in June; its "Mario Party 8" led all games with nearly 427,000 copied sold.

Other top sellers included Activision's "Guitar Hero II" for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Games Studios' "Forza Motorsport 2" for the Xbox 360.

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