Gaming fans await Xbox launch
Gaming fans are eagerly awaiting the launch of Microsoft's 'Xbox' console. The console is due to go on sale at midnight.
Retaliating to reports that the Xbox may scratch some CDs and DVDs, a spokesman said: "I think some people have been talking about it because there is so much passion behind it.
"The Xbox is such an amazing thing that people are just trying to find a couple of chinks. It's just a non-issue."
The computer giant is understood to have committed €567m (€915m) to marketing Xbox worldwide as it attempts to capture a slice of the profitable games sector.
Microsoft are marketing the Xbox as the world’s most powerful console and estimate they will sell between 4.5 and six million units worldwide by the end of June.
One of their biggest threats comes in the form of the new GameCube from rival Nintendo which goes on sale in the UK on May 3 priced at around £150 (€240) - half the price of the £299 (€480) Xbox.
Both will be trying to steal some of the market from Sony’s PS2, which was launched in November 2000 and has sold 18 million consoles worldwide.
Richard Teversham, Xbox marketing manager, said: ‘‘It’s time for the talking to stop and the playing to begin. In the early hours of Thursday morning thousands of gaming pioneers will experience the future first hand.’’
James Ashton-Tyler, editor in chief of the Official Xbox Magazine, has played all 20 games currently available for the new console and believes it will be a big seller.
‘‘It is going to excite what I call hard-core gamers, the people who are really into their games,’’ he said. ‘‘What I see it doing is capturing the market within six months and selling one million units in the UK by Christmas.’’
