Microsoft Touts 1 Million Xbox 360 Milestone With New 'Thank You' Campaign

To celebrate the Xbox 360's one million units life-to-date in Japan, Microsoft touted increasing support for Xbox Live Arcade from the Japanese development community and unveiled a number of new Xbox Live Arcade titles. The company held a press conference yesterday, according to consumer website GameSpot, where it announced it would celebrate the milestone with a "Thank You" campaign, offering one million Microsoft Points and a free dashboard theme in Japan. According to Enterbrain data, the console passed the 1 million mark last month. By comparison, the original Xbox sold only around half a million units in Japan since launch, lacking software that satisfies Japanese audience tastes. However, exclusive RPGs like Star Ocean: The Last Hope and Tales of Vesperia have helped drive the Xbox 360's userbase in the country -- the latter actually sold out the console's stock nationwide when it launched. Last week, data from chart compiler Media Create put the Xbox 360's lifetime total in Japan at precisely 993,015 units -- compared to 3 million LTD units for the PlayStation 3 and just over 8 million for the Wii. Other announcements made at the conference reportedly included an August 6th release date (in Japan) for Namco Bandai-published role-playing game Magna Carta 2 and a winter release for tri-Ace and Sega’s recently announced role-player End of Eternity. According to the report, a number of new Xbox Live Arcade titles announced were 2D fighting games. These include Arc System Works’ BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger on June 26th; and Garou: Mark of the Wolves, The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match and a new 3D Samurai Shodown from SNK Playmore. Other titles included 2D shoot ‘em-up The King of Fighters: Sky Stage and Square Enix/Taito releases Space Invaders Extreme, Bubble Bobble Neo! and OD Beat Drop. Additional Square Enix releases teased at the end of the conference included Project Cube, Yosumin Live and 0 Day Attack on Earth, and more coverage on the XBLA-specific announcements is in progress at Gamasutra sister site GamerBytes.