Software giant Microsoft says that it will release a 250GB add hard-disk drive for the Xbox 360 console.

The drive will go on sale on March 11 and will cost $172.  It is the first time Redmond has offered a 250GB drive add-on as a stand-alone unit.  You can only buy them in the rest of the world in a bundle with a new console.

Officially Microsoft has plans to put it on sale as a stand-alone unit outside of Japan, however the dark satanic rumour mill suggests it has put it out in Japan to see how it will work.  It is not the first time that American has thrown something it might think will be a bomb at Japan to see if it will work.

The new drive more than doubles storage capacity from the 120GB drive available on the current Xbox 360 Elite console. Microsoft wants people to expand their local storage so it can make more cash from its online store. Sony recently re-launched its PlayStation 3 console and includes a 120GB drive in each unit.