While Namco Bandai's big news yesterday came with weapons in hand, the company also let slip that its long-running arcade-style aerial combat series, Ace Combat, has surpassed more than 10 million units sold worldwide, with the franchise's fifth offspring, The Unsung War, contributing more than a million to that total in North America alone.

The series first took to the skies in 1995 with Air Combat for the original PlayStation, and has since enjoyed the company of eight additional sequels and spin-offs on multiple platforms, from the PS2 and PSP, to even 2005's Ace Combat Advance for the GBA, with the visually stunning Ace Combat 6 for the Xbox 360 reminding us all that we feel the need ... the need for speed.

If you're like one certain disgruntled Joystiq blogger who's kicking it east coast this week, you've felt a little jilted watching all the new games everyone will get to play at E3. But you know what? Let those snobs have their fun. We that remain are going to be having some exclusive sneak preview action of our own with the new demos of Ace Combat 6 and NCAA Football 2008 on Xbox Live.

Sure, they may get to check out a few, well, hotter properties, but you know how journalists at E3 are ... it just kills them that the blogger they left behind has access to something that they don't. We bet those guys wish they brought their 360s now! ... Wait, really? Well, crap.

It's no Steel Battalion control console, but who are we to be picky?

Namco Bandai announced today an Ace Combat 6 bundle that includes a flightstick dubbed Ace-Edge. The entire package, which also includes a custom Xbox 360 faceplate, will retail for $150. Flight enthusiasm may have the wallet for that, but we'll stick with a cheaper option like Tiltboard. Or more likely, we'll just play with our unmodded Xbox 360 controllers and be happy with that.

Ace Combat 6 is coming exclusively to Xbox 360 this holiday season.

In an event that shall only be referred to as "Mondayton," Capcom shocked everyone by announcing a would-be exclusive for Microsoft's platform. Today, it's Namco Bandai's turn. Mirroring the Xbox 360 launch with Ridge Racer 6, Ace Combat 6: Kaiho e no Senbi has been unveiled as an Xbox 360 exclusive.

IGN did the Famitsu translation work for the rest of us and fished out the details. Helming the project will be Ace Combat veterans Hiroyuki Ichiyanagi and Natsuki Isaki, serving as producer and director respectively. There will be two huge additions to the series with the first being the Dynamic Mission system. Players will be teaming up with ally pilots that can be manipulated to take care of various tasks outside the scope of the primary objective, which can then open up new missions mid-battle.

The other addition? Online play, of course. While no number of players are mentioned, there are currently battle royal and team battle modes, as well as a co-operative play that allows players to team-up against an enemy force.

Ace Combat 6 is due out in Japan this year with no set release or announcement for the Western world, though expect one sooner than later.