Hark! Is that the sound of champagne corks denting the polystyrene ceiling tiles at Microsoft HQ? Very likely as Halo 3 has just become a bona-fide hit – in Japan, of all places!

Yep, week one sales of Bungie’s quality blaster have topped 59,000 in the land where the sun rises – small in comparison to the US figures, we don’t doubt, but large enough to see off competition from the likes of previous chart-topper, Crisis Core, and other weighty wannabes like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and PS3 Oblivion. Of course 59,000 might very well represent one unit of Halo 3 sold for every single Xbox 360 owner in Japan, and it’s not the first time a 360-exclsuive title has managed such a feat either – Gears of War managed the same last year – but not bad all the same, eh.

Elsewhere the Halo 3 kazoos are triumphantly parping out the fact that Halo 3 has busted $300 million in worldwide sales in its first week, thus making it “one of the biggest entertainment launches of all time.” Other impressive stats – 2.7 million gamers have played the game on Xbox LIVE in the first week, 40 Million hours (i.e 4500 years!) of online gameplay were logged in the same timeframe and 30 million Achievements have been, er, achieved. Gosh, crikey and, at the same time, zzzzzzzzz.

”Halo is truly a cultural phenomenon, and the launch of Halo 3 is an important milestone for Xbox 360 and for video games as entertainment and as an art form,” says Bill Gates, thumbs firmly hooked behind his red braces. So the definition of a cultural phenomenon is selling loads, right? In which case all hail Milk! All the kids are drinking it this year and it’s magic in a cuppa...