Looks like they’ve been handing out the trumpets over at Microsoft. Late yesterday we get a triumphantly parping press release heralding super-rapid growth for the Xbox 360 and eight million sales since launch across EMEA territories (that’s Europe, the Middle-East and Africa in plainspeak). Today we learn that 2008 has been, deep breath, the “biggest ever year in Xbox history”.

Okay, so Xbox history might not be as lengthy or glorious as Sony’s or Nintendo’s, but let’s not belittle Microsoft’s achievement here – a cool 28 million Xbox 360s have now been sold worldwide, so says 360 Product Manager, Aaron Greenberg. Impressive, eh?

And that towering total places the 360 well ahead of its main next-gen rival, the PS3, which, er, boasts an installed base of 19 million or so according to latest estimates. Furthermore – and here come those trumpets again – the 360 has achieved this sales success against a background of global financial meltdown.

Of course it’s all down to the recent price cuts which, Greenberg says, have been “critical to our success this holiday”. Indeed, entry to the Xbox 360 party can now be bought for the pocket-money price of $199/£129 for the basic unit. Small wonder that gamers are ignoring the PS3 in their droves and plumping for the 360 or the market dominating Wii instead. We reckon you can buy both for the around same price as the entry level Playstation 3 – with games bundled in too if you’re prepared to shop around. A no-brainer if ever there was one...