Xbox 360 Sells 277,000 In July, Fifth Month At 40+ Percent Console Share

Ahead of July's NPD results, Microsoft has released its monthly statement, claiming U.S. sales of 277,000 units of the Xbox 360 console -- the fifth month of 2011 in which the company has held over 40 percent market share. Microsoft said that the console had 45 percent market share for the current-gen console market during the month of July 2011, pointing out that the console has sold the most units in the U.S. of any current-gen console for 13 of the past 14 months. The company said the console is "on track" to have its biggest year since it launched in 2005, and also, thanks in part to next month's launch of Gears of War 3, the company says "we expect Xbox 360 to maintain its lead throughout the year, ending 2011 as the number one console worldwide." "Current-gen console", by definition, excludes portable hardware such as Nintendo's DS and 3DS. Atypically, it made no claims about the number of titles it had in the (unrevealed as of this writing) NPD top 10 games chart; no retail software sales numbers were made available by Microsoft. However, the company did reveal that its free Xbox Live Arcade game Kinect Fun Labs has seen 1 million downloads in the two months since its release. The company claims that the console's Kinect-compatible game library will triple by the end of 2011.