Microsoft Corporation has announced that the sales of its Xbox 360 consoles have crossed the 30 million mark globally and said it expected a record growth this year.

After the biggest year in its history in 2008, Xbox 360 achieved the highest percentage growth in hardware sales of any console so far in 2009, up 28 per cent over the previous year, said a top Microsoft official.

“We’ve always been confident that Xbox 360 offers more entertainment value than any other console on the market, and these latest numbers show that consumers agree,” said Don Mattrick, senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.

“We expect our growth to continue to accelerate. Our news at E3 next week will underscore our commitment to bringing blockbuster entertainment experiences to everyone and to growing the Xbox entertainment brand globally,” he remarked.

Over the course of this console generation, US consumers alone have spent $14.5 billion across all categories on Xbox 360 at retail.

'This number reflects strong interest in a comprehensive entertainment offering that includes the ability to connect with others socially and to digitally download entertainment, be it games, TV shows or movies,' Mattrick noted.

In addition, Xbox 360 continues to be the platform of choice for the industry’s top games, generating $5.9 billion in sales to date at US retail for third-party publishers, which is more than those of current-generation consoles combined.

'Xbox 360 also leads current-generation consoles in game purchases, with consumers owning an average of 8.3 titles each,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service