With the Halo 3 launch coming up next week, Microsoft is trying hard to build as much hype as possible around its gaming console, especially since it was announced the Nintendo Wii has surpassed Xbox 3650 in global sales.

Microsoft said today that since the release of Xbox 360 in November 2005 more than 11.6 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold across the 37 countries.

The Redmond company quoted the NPD data, according to which US gamers have purchased more software for the Xbox 360 (24.3 million units) than for the PS3 and Wii combined (19.8 million units).

What Microsoft seems to forget it that according to NPD Nintendo Wii is the best selling console and it has constantly outsold Xbox 360 in terms of monthly sales.

Microsoft said there are over 250 games currently available on the 360, which includes 86 Live Arcade games. These numbers give the 360 the largest games attach rate, with 6.3 games sold per console owner.

Microsoft also revealed some interesting facts about its Xbox Live Service. According to their statement Xbox Live service has 7 million members to date and is expected to reach 10 million members by June 2008.

In March this year Microsoft announced that Xbox Live service has reached its 6 million member goal four months sooner than originally the company had predicted. This means that over 1 million members have joined the service in just six month.

Microsoft said that the seven million members Live have spent over 3.2 billion collective hours playing online, unlocking more than 600 achievements and creating a total combined Gamerscore of more than 14 billion. In total, Microsoft says Xbox Live has hosted 2.5 billion game sessions since launch, with more than 5.6 million hosted each day thus far in 2007.

Speaking of games played on Xbox Live Microsoft released a list of the top 10 games played on Xbox Live.

The top three has remained unchanged since March with Halo 2, Gears of War, Hexic HD dominating the gamers’ preferences.

The other games are, in order: Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas, Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty 2, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 3, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Crackdown and PGR3

To date, the most popular Xbox LIVE Arcade downloads worldwide are Aegis Wing, Uno, Texas Hold ‘em, Geometry Wars Retro Evolved, Bankshot Billiards 2, Street Fighter ‘II Hyper Fighting, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 Classic Arcade, Worms, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and Contra.

Next week Microsoft is expected to rock the gaming world with the release of the widely acclaimed Halo 3.

The company said that preorders in North America for the highly anticipated title have exceeded the 1 million milestone and some analysts have predicted that Halo 3 sales will top 3 million in 12 days.

Also, Microsoft’s statement came out after yesterday DFC Intelligence claimed in its report about the gaming industry that despite its disappointing performance PlayStation 3 will be the winner of next-gen gaming console in 2012.

DFC analyst David Cole said that PlayStation 3 will generate more software revenue than the Wii by 2012, but Wiil will continue to lead the hardware sales.

The report claimed that Microsoft's console might end up as a “fairly distant third” if it doesn't manage to get a solid position on other markets besides the United States.

So far Xbox 360 sales in Japan have proved that the Japanese gamers are faithful to Sony and Nintendo.

Meanwhile, today at Tokyo Games Show 2007, Sony announced that the launch of Home, the virtual 3D gaming world, was postponed for spring 2008.