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As the time goes by, new figures about the GTA IV sales have started to emerge. After Rockstar officially announced that their masterpiece sold 6 million units in the first week (with 3.6 million copies in its first day) now it is time for another episode from the Microsoft versus Sony show.

The two companies have been engaged in a marketing battle since the beginning of the year, trying to use the release of GTA IV as a promotion mechanism for the sales of their consoles.

Analysts have forecasted that the new game will definitely boost console sales, but while some of them said Xbox 360 will surely outsell PS3, others were willing to bet their money on PS3.

However, after some vague official statement, Microsoft’s marketing blog now has new information on the status of the GTA IV battle.

According to GameScoreBlog, the success of GTA IV has led to an increase of 54% week-over-week for Xbox 360’s sales.

Quoting data obtained from retailers, Microsoft claims that more than 60% of all GTA games sold in the first week were the Xbox 360 version. This is good news for Microsoft’s team that works to promote Xbox 360.

GameScoreBlog notes also, based on the same information from retailers, that GTA IV is attaching strongly to new console sales, with roughly 40% of new consoles selling with a copy of the game.

However, while GTA IV is shaping up to be a real success for Xbox 360, it is not as radical as expected. In the first days after the launch, Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, estimated based on the same data from retailers that the Xbox 360 version of GTA IV is outselling the PS3 version by a margin of two to one. Compared to those claims, the new data seem a little bit more realistic.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has an important argument over PS3, as the company has signed a deal with Rockstar to provide some exclusive content of GTA IV to Xbox owners. There are few details about this exclusive content, but Microsoft said it would add hours of gameplay.

And speaking of Xbox Live, GameScoreBlog revealed some details about GTA IV’s success on this service.

GTA IV has scored a new record on Xbox Live. In the first week, more than 2.3 million people played Grand Theft Auto IV and the game is now the number one played game on Xbox Live.

Gamers have unlocked more than 12 million achievements worth over 100 million gamerscore points in GTA IV. It has set a new record for time played, with the average gamer spending more than four hours playing the game on LIVE in the first week alone.