Microsoft announces 360’s forthcoming games line-up

Microsoft has announced that 80 games will be available for the Xbox 360 by June 2006. These include games such as Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend, The Lord of the Rings The Battle for Middle Earth II, Football Manager, Moto GP 2006, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat and 2006 FIFA World Cup. Big name releases will also be joined by the budget priced Table Tennis from Rockstar Games.

“With 80 games available worldwide by June, and new content and experiences coming to Xbox Live all the time, there has never been a better time to own an Xbox 360” said Peter Moore, Corporate Vice President of Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft.

Xbox 360 owners will also be able to download a number of new Xbox Live Arcade titles in the coming weeks and months, including Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting and Uno. The wait for the big releases isn’t that long either, with Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter out now, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion due for release on March 24.

Downloadable content has also been announced for a number of 360 titles. Project Gotham Racing 3 will receive new cars and achievements, Perfect Dark Zero will receive new multiplayer maps, and Kameo: Elements of Power will soon be playable in co-op over Xbox Live. Microsoft claims that the Xbox Live Marketplace has been a huge success, with over 85 percent of connected Xbox 360 consoles having downloaded at least one piece of content.

In related news, Microsoft has announced that two to three times the number of Xbox 360 consoles will be sent to retail on a weekly basis, so it shouldn’t be too long before you can walk into a store and easily purchase a console – if you can’t do it already. “Today we have turned a major corner, with more consoles on their way to retail,” commented Peter Moore.

While this is all good news for Microsoft, it seems we’ll have to wait a little longer to hear about Microsoft’s next wave of first-party titles.