For the first time in eight years, Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) has nabbed the lead in video game console sales from rival Nintendo. Sony Computer Entertainment sold 18.7 million game consoles in its most recent fiscal year ended in March. Nintendo’s sales totaled 16.31 million in the same period.

Sony’s gain is down to the success of its PlayStation 4, which hit the market in November. The most recent sales data for the PS4 came out in April and showed that Sony had sold 7 million of the new consoles.

The third major player in the video game console wars, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), has shipped 5 million of its Xbox One consoles since sales began last November.

Nintendo’s Wii U hit the market a year before either the Xbox One and the PS4, buts sales dropped 31% in the recent fiscal year as gamers turned their attention and dollars to the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft.

The May release of Nintendo’s popular Mario Kart 8 game in Japan pushed sales of the Wii U console to 19,312 in the last week of May, compared with just 6,508 PS4 consoles. More than 325,000 copies of the new game were sold in Japan during the first week of the game’s release. The PS4 was released in Japan in February, and the Xbox One will not hit the Japanese market until September.

At the E3 show that officially begins Tuesday in Los Angeles, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are all expected to announce a multitude of new games. Nintendo is also expected to promote its coming Super Smash Bros 4 game with a tournament at its E3 booth, but the company’s Tuesday morning press conference is being held via video and the company’s president is not attending E3.

Nintendo announced last Friday that it is closing its office and distribution center in Bavaria and cutting 130 jobs.

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