March 14th, 2002 (12:00am) - HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - U.S. software giant Microsoft prepared on Wednesday for the third and final leg of the global launch of its games console Xbox (news - web sites), which hit shops across Europe at midnight today.
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 U.S. where Microsoft-founder Bill Gates (news - web sites) 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 $423 in Britain and $419 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 U.S. The device goes head to head with Sony Corp (news - web sites).’s PlayStation 2 (news - web sites) console which has been on the market for well over a year and retails for $299.
Nintendo (news - web sites) Co. Ltd. will also bring its new console, called GameCube, to Europe on May 3, with a marketing budget of $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.
