The Xbox 360 is here! I can only find a few stories at the moment, since this is breaking news, but I am sure that more will appear soon. Seemingly, more than 200 folks braved the cold this morning in Manhattan to get their hands on the next generation gaming console, which has just gone on sale in North America. Two versions of the console are available, the basic version which sells for $US300, and a $US400 version of the system which has a removable hard drive and extra compatibility features with earlier Xbox games.

"It's just the latest and greatest," said Michael Hamilton, 25, of Brooklyn, who was second in line to secure the new video game machine, designed to offer near-photo-realistic graphics and, like Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Co Ltd's Revolution due out next year, is a more powerful system designed to appeal to a wider swath of consumers.

Ahead of Hamilton was Peter Gonzalez, 19, from Manhattan, who waited nearly 30 hours in front of Best Buy Co Inc's midtown Manhattan store to be one of the first in the United States to buy an Xbox 360.