Yes, it's official: Europe is to get its hands on Microsoft's latest Xbox 360 incarnation this Summer.

Yesterday's E3 press conference saw the black, HDMI-enabled 120Gb Elite scheduled as a Summer release, hitting European shelves on August 24th. Pricing, however, was not announced. Nor was the question of whether the Euro-Elite will make use of the rumoured Falcon hardware improvements - reported bySPOnG yesterday.

The Elite has been on sale in the United States since April 29th; all we were really waiting for in Europe was the timing to be added. Now all we are waiting for his pricing and the inevitable bundle information - as soon as we hear, so will you.

Not to let the USA consumers down, Microsoft also revealed its upcoming Halo 3 Elite Special Edition: in short an Xbox Elite in green(ish) with a copy of Halo 3. This is to be made available on September 25th, in the U.S.A. We'll jolly well hope to see the Halo 3 Special Edition pack glowing on local retailer shelves on September 26th.