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Gears sells three million

750k map downloads, too.

Like wretches descending out of a ceiling vent on a train, there's no conceivable end or variety to Microsoft's Gears of War press releases - but they're all good news, with this one highlighting the game's three-millionth sale.

Assuming that the company has sold the majority of the 10.4 million consoles it's flogged to retail, that means that nearly a third of Xbox 360 owners have signed up to fight the Locust Horde - an impressive statistic, to say the least.

And a huge number are playing it online, too. The game remains top of the Xbox Live most-played list according to figures released by director of programming Larry Hryb at the weekend, and Microsoft says there have been 1.5 million total downloads of Gears content (including themes and walkthroughs), with 750,000 downloads of the free multiplayer maps Old Bones and Raven Down alone.

What's more, you all voted it your second favourite game of 2006 in our recent reader poll. With sequels enormously likely, expect to hear much more in the future. They're not done fighting, after all.

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