Gears Of War Breaks Worldwide Xbox 360 Records

Microsoft officials have announced that Epic Games’ Gears of War has already sold over one million units worldwide, just two weeks after its initial release. The game’s rapid success makes it the fastest selling Xbox 360 game ever, ahead of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and Call of Duty 2. The game also became the second fastest selling Microsoft game ever in the UK sales charts, behind only Halo 2, and is currently the most popular game on the Xbox 360 online service. According to Microsoft, more than 850,000 different gamers have already played ten million gameplay sessions, unlocking seven million achievements. The company also claims that since the game went on sale in the U.S., the rate of Xbox Live Gold subscriptions has increased twofold, with more than 85 percent of customers playing the game online in some form. “From the very beginning, we knew Gears of War would be an industry-defining hit,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president at Microsoft Game Studios. “As we watched both the game and its hype grow, it became obvious that Gears of War was the rare title that could live up to such incredible anticipation, and judging from the reaction of critics and fans, it’s done just that.” In related news, Microsoft has announced a new Xbox 360 hardware bundle in Europe with a Premium Xbox 360 console and a copy of Gears of War priced at £299.99 ($573) – which will be sold alongside the stand alone Premium bundle at £279.99 ($534). No equivalent bundle has yet been announced for North America.