Europe, Microsoft’s last leg in global launch of Xbox

Lucas van Grinsven

HANOVER: US software giant Microsoft prepared on Wednesday for the third and

final leg of the global launch of its games console Xbox, which will hit shops

across Europe at midnight.

The games machine, Microsoft's first foray into the $20 billion a year global

video game industry, is already on sale in the United States and Japan where it

was launched in previous months with a global marketing budget of $500 million.

The device has been hit by manufacturing teething problems in Japan where it

was introduced last month. Some of the machines make small scratches on gaming

discs, which forced Microsoft to offer to replace consoles. Microsoft said it

was "extremely unlikely" anything similar would happen in Europe.

Mimicking similar events in the US where Microsoft-founder Bill Gates

challenged gamers at midnight in New York stores, European launch parties for

the X-box are planned in over a dozen nations. The product will retail for 300

pounds ($423) in Britain and 479 euros in other parts of Europe.

In London, Virgin Megastores will pit celebrities and gamers against each

other when shops open specially at midnight as it starts selling the first

hundreds of boxes.

In Madrid the legendary Bernabeu soccer stadium of Real Madrid will be lit in

"Xbox green" spotlights, and in Paris shops will open at midnight.

Meanwhile a French team of six gamers will be locked into a house for five days,

battling it out on the console in front of a TV audience.

In Germany cable TV station Giga will broadcast the local launch party live

on its channel.

Microsoft said consumers would not have to pre-register for the nocturnal

event. It had sufficient boxes available for impulse buyers. Even if retailers

were to sell out in coming weeks, consoles should be available throughout Europe

within 72 hours, supplied from a Hungarian plant of contract electronics

manufacturer Flextronics which makes the box.

The Xbox has in any case been on pre-sale for many weeks at retailers around

Europe and with online shop Amazon.com. Microsoft declined to specify demand in

Europe, but reiterated it expected to ship between 4.5 and six million boxes

worldwide by the end of June.

"We're really happy with the presales at Amazon," a European

Microsoft spokesman said.

The Xbox is Microsoft's supercharged gaming machine that debuted last

November in the US. The device goes head to head with Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2

console which has been on the market for well over a year and retails for $299.

Nintendo Co. Ltd. will also bring its new console, called GameCube, to Europe on

May 3, with a marketing budget of 100 million euros ($87.4 million) for the

region.

Sony recently slashed the price for its PlayStation 2 to make the price

difference with Xbox even starker. The device has sold 25 million units since

its launch in November 2000. Xbox executives, bent on winning gaming street

credibility for the new rival to PlayStation 2, have adamantly denied the

machine is anything but a true-blue game console.

Fitted with an 8-gigabyte hard drive, a high-speed Internet jack, a main

processor based on Intel Corp.'s Pentium III and an Nvidia graphics chip, the

Xbox is capable of much more. Industry watchers expect Microsoft to turn the

Xbox into an Internet and TV gateway for the home.