Thursday, September 15, 2005

As promised, Microsoft will ship its next-generation Xbox 360 video game console before the end of the year. But with a November 22 launch in the US, the Xbox will barely make it into the holiday season as expected. And the system's December 2 launch in Europe and December 10 debut in Japan are even later.

In the video game world, a system's set of launch targets are indeed often important, though Microsoft will benefit strongly by beating its competitors, Sony and Nintendo, to market by several months. Sony and Nintendo intend to release new video game systems in early and mid-2006, respectively. Microsoft has yet to release a complete list of game titles that will be available at the Xbox 360 launch.