Microsoft's next generation games console, the Xbox360 officially launched in the UK this morning at the stroke of midnight giving gamers the chance to play the new console.

Shops across the country opened at midnight to sell the console. At Game in Oxford Street, London, around 200 gamers had spent the day queuing for their chance to get a console from day one amid fears that their wouldn't be enough stock to go around.

One man we spoke to at the store shortly after he had bought his console, had been queuing since nine o'clock that morning just to make sure he got one.

“When I was a kid I was never allowed to come to an event like this, but now I am old enough I though, well why not”.

Similar shoppers had the same feeling with most purchasing more than just the console at the midnight opening.

Microsoft celebrated the launch with a party in Leicester Square. Journalists who were invited to the exclusive guestlist-only event had the chance to play the console all evening on a multitude of consoles and each walked away with a limited edition face plate painted by Gorillaz designer Zombie Flesh Eaters and creative group Beat 13.

The marketing machine will now move on to Japan, where the company will be launching the console in two weeks time.

You can read what we thought of the console and the games we've played so far via the following links:

- Xbox 360 console
- Kameo: Elements of Power
- Perfect Dark Zero
- Condemned: Criminal Origins
- Project Gotham Racing 3

>> Microsoft - Official website of Microsoft