Xbox Gaming in South Africa

On the eve of E3, Microsoft is trying to get the upper hand in the "mines bigger than yours" contest by announcing that they've sold a whopping 55 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide.

While the Xbox 360 might not be leading in overall lifetime sales (that still goes to Nintendo's Wii), the Xbox 360 is the only "current" generation console to see sales increasing significantly year-over-year, with 2011 showing a 29 percent increase over last year's first quarter, according to NPD figures. And if that just sounds like a lot of boring numbers, here's a colourful graph Microsoft conveniently slipped into the press release which plots the year-over-year sales for all gaming consoles.

With console sales still climbing, and Kinect sensors and games selling well, it's hard to see Microsoft announcing a new console anytime soon - at least not in the next year or so - so it will be interesting to see what they have in-store for gamers in the coming months. We'll of course find out more at their E3 press conference which kicks off at 6:30PM (GMT +2) on Monday, 6 June.