Microsoft has released the 60GB Xbox for the price of the 20GB version. The company has tripled the amount of storage on its Xbox 360 with a 60GB version which will sell at the current price of the 20GB model.

The 60GB unit will cost $349, while the 20GB will drop to $299 until stocks are depleted. Albert Penello the Xbox product director at Microsoft said that “We know that consumers need more and more space to store the digital content Xbox 360 offers, and we are giving it to them at no extra charge. This console will make a debut in the shelves in the US and Canada early August but is still not known when it will go to Europe. So far Microsoft has sold more than 10 million Xbox 360 consoles in the US. This makes the Xbox 360 the first next-generation console to surpass the 10 million mark in the US.

Microsoft boasts of selling over 19 million Xbox 360s worldwide. “This year will be the largest in the history of the video game industry, with Xbox 360 leading the charge in the US and abroad,” said Don Mattrick, senior vice president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business. “History has shown that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle. We are uniquely positioned to set a new benchmark for the industry.”

Recent analysis shows that Nintendo is hot on Microsoft’s heels in the US, logging 8.8 million Wii sales. The PS3, meanwhile, has racked up 4.1 million US sales since its launch at the end of 2006.