Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. sales of Nintendo Co.’s Wii video-game console more than doubled in November, providing a lift in an industry being pinched by the U.S. recession.

Nintendo, the world’s largest maker of game consoles, sold 2.04 million Wii players last month, researcher NPD Group Inc. said today in a statement. That’s a record for consoles in any month besides December, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said today, and compares with 981,000 units last year.

The jump contrasts with reports from game publishers of lower-than-projected Christmas sales. Electronic Arts Inc., maker of the “Madden NFL” games, said this week fiscal 2009 sales and profit would miss earlier forecasts because of slow holiday sales. THQ Inc., creator of the “Wall-E” game, is closing five studios and eliminating 250 jobs.

“Nintendo has done a phenomenal job of branding, marketing and making it highly sought after and hard to get,” said Michael Pachter, a Los Angeles-based analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities. “The numbers are impressive.”

The U.S. video-games industry had $2.91 billion in sales last month, up 10 percent from last year, Port Washington, New York-based NPD said. That compares with the 18 percent jump seen in October. Consumers last month spent $1.21 billion on consoles, $1.45 billion on new games and $255.4 million on accessories.

Microsoft Corp. sold 836,000 of its Xbox 360 video-game players last month, up 8.6 percent from the 770,000 sold last year, according to NPD. Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 sales totaled 378,000, NPD said, down 19 percent from a year earlier.

Microsoft

“We’re very competitively priced at a time when consumers are being much more conscious of how they’re spending their entertainment dollars,” Aaron Greenberg, director of product management in Microsoft’s Xbox unit, said in an interview.

Microsoft lowered the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade, its least-expensive unit, to $199.99 from $279.99 in September.

The most popular U.S. game was Activision Blizzard Inc.’s “Call of Duty: World at War,” which sold more than 2 million units for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Microsoft sold 1.56 copies of “Gears of War 2.”

Nintendo’s sales to date suggest U.S. consumers will buy almost 10 million Wii consoles during 2008, Fils-Aime said in an interview.

In sales of handheld game players, Nintendo is also leading. Consumers purchased 1.57 million DS machines, compared with 421,000 units of Sony’s PSP, NPD said. The PSP sales are down 26 percent from last year.

Black Friday

Nintendo, based in Kyoto, Japan, is increasing shipments to the U.S. by 50 percent during the fourth quarter to avoid shortages that crimped sales last year, Fils-Aime said. In last year’s fourth quarter, U.S. consumers purchased 2.85 million Wiis and 4.46 million DS handheld players, according to NPD.

The rise in production helped Nintendo double year-over- year sales of the Wii during the Black Friday shopping week, selling 800,000 units, Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s president, said in an interview Dec. 8.

Nintendo hardware and games built for the Wii and DS accounted for 71 percent of industry growth in November, year over year, Fils-Aime said.

“Certainly that says that companies that are aligned on our platforms, that are bringing compelling experiences on our platforms are doing well,” Fils-Aime said.

Nintendo fell 950 yen, or 2.7 percent, to 34,900 yen in Dec. 11 trading in Osaka, and is down 48 percent this year. Microsoft fell $1.16, or 5.6 percent, to $19.45 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading and Sony U.S. shares gained 19 cents to $21.04 on the New York Stock Exchange.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael White in Los Angeles at mwhite8@bloomberg.net; Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 11, 2008 20:39 EST