UPDATE 1-Nintendo Wii outsells PS3 3-to-1 in Japan in Jan

(Adds background, details, share price)

TOKYO, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd's (7974.OS) Wii video game console outsold Sony Corp's (6758.T) PlayStation 3 by 3-to-1 in Japan in January, thanks to Nintendo's launch of its "Wii Fit" home fitness game in December, a gaee magazine publisher said.

Nintendo sold 479,931 units of the Wii in the four weeks to Jan. 27, compared with 165,719 units of the PS3, Enterbrain said on Friday.

The Wii was the top-selling console in Japan for the second straight month, it said.

"This year, attention will shift to how hardware sold will propel the game market," Enterbrain said in a release.

The numbers were compiled prior to the Jan. 31 launch of Nintendo's "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" combat game featuring the Mario Brothers and other characters, which the publisher called "promising".

Sales of "Wii Fit," which features a pressure-sensing board that players can use to simulate ski jumps or surfing, topped 1.21 million units in the nine weeks since its release.

That compares with initial sales of 908,000 units of Nintendo's previous hit "Wii Sports," which had initially helped propel sales of the Wii.

Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) sold 27,044 units of its XBox 360 in January in Japan, Sony and Nintendo's home turf.

Shares of Nintendo closed down 0.2 percent. Sony dropped 8.2 percent after it posted a smaller-than-expected rise in quarterly operating profit and cut its outlook the previous day. (Reporting by Mayumi Negishi and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Mike Miller)