According to the latest sales figures provided by Media Create, it seems that Microsoft's Xbox 360 might be gaining a little ground in Japan. Mainly due to the exclusive release of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, which made its debut at #2 with nearly 80.000 units during its first week, the Xbox 360 has managed to push itself from an average of barely around 3000 consoles sold per week to 17,673, compared to PS3's 17,434.

The Orange Box features three new games by Valve: Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the second installment in the Half-Life 2 episodic trilogy; Team Fortress 2, the sequel to the game that put class-based, multiplayer team warfare on the map; and Portal, the game that blends puzzles, first-person action, and adventure gaming to produce an experience like no other.

In The Simpsons Game, Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa use exciting, all-new powers to save the world from rising chaos. To help the Simpsons, gamers at home must journey through all of Springfield (as well as vast worlds beyond!), vanquish an amazing array of villains, and fight their way through parodies of multiple popular games.

Players will embark on a global quest to overcome an evil threat, by controlling Spider-Man and one of numerous Super Hero or Super Villain sidekicks, as they master unique fighting moves and styles while switching between characters to execute team combos and defeat foes.

Two Worlds is an RPG set in a medieval fantasy world. The 566MB demo offers a portion of Two Worlds' single-player map to explore, complete with numerous quests to solve and monsters to battle. A patch for both versions is in the works, addressing issues based on player feedback.

Nov. 15, 2002 was the official launch date of Xbox Live in North America, and next week is the service's fifth anniversary. Instead of throwing a party that only a few hundred people can attend, Microsoft decided to do all its celebrating on Xbox LIVE itself with a handful events and tons of prizes.

Revealed a few days ago, Microsoft unveiled new parental tools as part of the second year of the "Safety is no game. Is your family set?" campaign. The Family Timer will enable parents to set the appropriate amount of gaming and entertainment time on the X360 for their kids, on a daily or weekly basis.

Microsoft's Xtival ’07 is a four day festival of gaming, competitions and exclusive downloads, bringing Xbox Live Gold membership, free to everyone for one weekend. The invitation for Xbox 360 owners to tune up and log in was thrown open to the Xbox 360 owners across Europe from Friday 23rd until Monday 26th November.

NBA 2K8 elevates the game of basketball to new levels for the next-gen systems. NBA 2K8 also continues to build and expand the groundbreaking Signature Style feature that will include hundreds of new shooting, passing and dribbling animations.

ESPN and Microsoft announced an agreement that will add full-length games, television shows and video game programming to Xbox Live, including full-length NCAA college football and basketball games, Summer X Games 13, World Series of Poker, The Contender, Madden Nation.

A flier included with the Guitar Hero III keychain inadvertently reveals that in December there will be an Xbox 360 firmware/dashboard update adding a new feature. The Parental Timer is a simple tool that lets you manage how much time your kids spend on their Xbox 360. It will allow parents to manage time in daily or weekly increments, and easily to suspend and add time.

Experience the sights and sounds of Beautiful Katamari as the Prince takes on a new high-rolling adventure, with his famous cousins in tow, to save the Katamari universe after the King of All Cosmos has a very un-royal and unfortunate accident.

Team up with up to 15 other players to take on the enemy forces that have occupied the Coastal Village in a dynamic Co-Op mission or play an 8 on 8 Squad Engagement match vs. another team of highly trained soldiers. UbiSoft has released a 535mb demo, now available on Xbox Live.

Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII is an intense action-adventure air combat game that takes place during World War II. The players lead an elite undercover squad of pilots secretly created by the American government to execute Operation Wildcard.

Guitar Hero fans will channel their inner rock god using Gibson Guitar's Les Paul and Kramer models, experience new features and explosive content including a new multiplayer action-inspired battle mode, grueling boss battles, a bevy of exclusive unlockable content and authentic rock venues.

Conan is an action/adventure game featuring a story of epic brutality, sheer evil and visceral combat. Players will follow the journey of Conan the Cimmerian as he fights a vicious battle against a variety of enemies and an elusive power that threatens to consume the Hyborian world.

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation will let players experience Ace Combat on a massive worldwide scale as it features an in-depth multi-player online experience that includes a variety of action-packed online modes.

GripShift combines high-flying stunt driving with unique puzzle-solving action in an all-out, pedal-to-the-metal racing experience. According to a new ESRB ratings update, Sidhe Interactive is bringing its Stunt Car Racer-esque game to Xbox Live Arcade. No tentative release date or possible publisher was revealed.

Spider-Man 3 allows players to experience the actions of heroic red-suited Spider-Man and, for the first time ever, his darker, more mysterious black-suited persona. Once you have downloaded the content (240 MS Points), you will be able to activate New Goblin from the Playable Characters option in the Upgrade Menu after defeating him in the game.

Based on the second season of the Avatar animated series, players will join Aang and his friends as they master their skills and fight their way to defend the greatest Earth Kingdom city against a deadly Fire Nation invasion.

Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action brings gamers together with friends and family for a casual trivia game. Using the simple and intuitive Big Button Controller, players can challenge their friends to see whose movie knowledge reigns supreme, with real content from their favorite movies and actors.

In Half-Life 2: Ep. Two, armed with new weaponry and vehicles, Dr. Gordon Freeman must race through a countryside riddled with an increasingly fierce Combine threat. Half-Life 2: The Orange Box also includes Team Fortress 2 as a multiplayer addition, and physics-focused puzzle game Portal. Valve has released a new update for the X360 version enhancing TF2, and improving overall game performance.

NHL 08 features an exclusive AHL license for the first time, with all 29 teams from the primary development league for the NHL fully playable in game.

Unlike the gloomy Sony news from earlier today, Microsoft's latest quarterly financial result reveals that its Entertainment and Devices Division (Games for Windows and Xbox branch) has turned its longtime red numbers into black. While its overall business keeps thriving, with a 27% revenue increase amounting to $13.76 billion, the games division came back from a $142M operating loss to close September with $165M profit, probably in no small part due to Halo 3's success.

THQ announced that SpongeBob SquarePants: Underpants Slam! will be one of the first titles in its portfolio of games developed specifically for Xbox Live Arcade, followed by original titles Screwjumper, Elements of Destruction and Rocket Riot.