Xbox 360 turns five in Europe

Party hats on again, chaps.

Today marks the fifth anniversary of Xbox 360 going on sale in Europe and the UK: the console went on sale on December 2, 2005.

It only celebrated its US launch last week, with Japan celebrating - or maybe not - its release next Friday, December 10.

The console, which was unveiled in an MTV special before E3 in 2005, launched in 20Gb and a HD-less Arcade SKU forms. It was Microsoft's second home console following the launch of the original Xbox in March 2002 in Europe.

Launch titles for 360 in Europe included two Rare titles in Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo as well as Call of Duty 2, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Ridge Racer 6, to name a few.

In the subsequent years, it's seen three Halo titles including Halo 3 itself. The latest release, Reach, launched in September.

360's biggest new IP, however, has been Gears of War. Following launches in 2006 and 2008 of Gears 1 and 2 repsectively, the final game in the main series will release next fall.

In November, Microsoft launched motion camera Kinect, something that the company hopes will significantly extend the life-cycle of the console.

Red-rings? What red-rings? We bow to you, 360. Happy birthday.