November 11^th, 2003 (12:00am) - Microsoft Corp. has just announced it will slash the price of its Xbox game console in Japan more than 30%. All the details inside.

Microsoft Corp. has just announced it will slash the price of its Xbox game console in Japan more than 30% Nov. 20, following a similar move earlier this month by Sony Corp.

Yoshihiro Maruyama has just announced in Tokyo that Microsoft will cut the pretax retail price of its Xbox to Y16,800 from Y24,800 starting Nov. 20. That is equivalent to about a 30% cut in price.

"Being realistic, we think it’s impossible to overtake Sony and Nintendo in Japan in terms of shipment figures for this current generation of platforms," Yoshihiro Maruyama, head of Microsoft’s Xbox business in Japan, told a group of reporters. "But online gaming offers us an opportunity to lure active gamers seeking easy access to a whole new gaming experience."

Maruyama, who joined Microsoft in October from the U.S. subsidiary of video game software publisher Square Enix Co Ltd, said the Xbox was a plug-in-and-go machine and was much better for online gaming than Sony’s PS2.

The Y19,800 bundle package includes "Halo" and "Project Gotham Racing 2", two controllers, a remote control for DVD playback and a two-month free trial of online gaming service Xbox Live.