After four years, Microsoft has announced today that they have reached the mark of ten million Xbox 360 consoles sold across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. As a result, they say this makes them the only console that has been able to achieve year-on-year growth in the region this year.

"Xbox 360 continues to pull ahead of the competition when it comes to delivering on a complete home entertainment experience and we think that Xbox Live currently is about 12 to 18 months ahead of its main rival PlayStation Network when it comes to offering service and content beyond traditional games," said Director of Digital Media Research at Strategy Analytics, Martin Olausson, in a press release.

"By introducing innovative new services and content such as Natal, instant streaming of full 1080P HD video, and integrating social media features such as Twitter and Facebook, Xbox will likely attract a wider audience than its rivals and is in a great position to maximize sales in the next few years".

"Reinventing entertainment through, play, watch, connect and share. This is the vision that we have for Xbox 360 and today that vision is the reality for 10 million Xbox owners," said Chris Lewis, vice president Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft Europe. "European consumers are very discerning and demand a connected entertainment experience. That's why we focused on providing content that is right and relevant for them and entertainment beyond just gaming to movies, music and social networking. We have delivered on this promise and next week will bring real innovation into the living room through instant streaming high definition movies, connecting with friends on Facebook and Twitter and a personalised music channel. Together, this represents a real shift in the way people are entertained every day."

Microsoft throws in some other figures, including that the majority (60 percent) of Xbox consoles having become integrated into the family living room. In addition, "[i]t has also caused a shift in the Xbox customer base as now 35% of Xbox customers are women and 64% are over the age of 25," according to an April 2009 Microsoft Internal Research Study.

Naturally, they predict that Project Natal will open more new horizons for them, creating "a new category of gaming and entertainment experiences through controller-free gaming that makes Xbox 360 more inclusive and relevant to an even wider audience."

Just one year to go before we see how that transpires.