Our priority is ensuring our customers get the best Xbox One experience the first day it is available. To do that, and in order to meet demand, we have adjusted the number of markets that will receive Xbox One in November to 13 markets, including Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand, in November.
We remain committed to launching Xbox One in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, as soon as possible in 2014.
And now delays. Microsoft on a roll.
Interesting to see Australia was kept on for November.
I can’t find any recent sales details [http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/01/australian-console-sales-figures-s…] but there can’t be more than 2-3 million 360’s in the whole country.
Although if you add on the Australia tax, each sale is almost worth two for Microsoft.
So in Australia you must have the highest concentration of microsoft consoles in the world. More than one per ten people and that includes the elderly, infirm, mentally disabled, newborns, luddites, yes all of australia.
Or perhaps the contients reputation preceeds it and the animals have turned from killing humans to consoles. Lol =D
Out of 23/24 million you can probably guess about 12 million are adults.
Seeing as there’s no data for the past three years i’ll hazard 2 million of each console (wii, 360, ps3)
That actually does seem a bit high, every second adult has a console…
I live in Australia. You can have mine
They are dropping mostly small countries that need no localization but are keeping the big countries that requires localization. So it can’t problems with supplying big market or problem developing that many localization at one time.
Yeah, what kind of additional localization would they need for Switzerland if they launch in France, Germany and Italy already?
Smells like their infrastructure is not yet ready in these countries.
Also worth watching is Lenovo
http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/14/lenovo-posts-q1-2014-earnings/
Outperforming the PC market and showing impressive growth in mobile phones. Lenovo is perfectly positioned no matter what the outcome. If PC sales fade out, they’ve created a strong alternative in their mobile sector. If hybrids take off like projected they’re also really good at selling PCs in a tough market.
Whoa, wrong thread. Meant to put this in the P6 thread.
Erm…yeah.
Missing the christmas sales in northern Europe might (or should i say likely) cause the rather healthy balance between MS and Sony consoles today to crack and turn countries like Sweden into mostly Sony turf. But on the other hand, with all the bad press they have gotten in this country i would understand if they just said “screw it, no XBO fo you”
It seems like a major mistake to me. Scandinavia is an area with high purchasing strength and especially so during christmas. When the new year rolls in everyone will already have purchased a Sony.
Someone at MS really dropped the ball here.
Edited 2013-08-15 04:26 UTC
I always find it interesting how slow such big, supposeldly international, companies adapt to changing market situations.
Like in this case assuming they still have the capabilty to launch in different EU countries at different times.
It’s not like their potential Belgian customers will wait several months, forego the Christmas opportunity, etc. instead of just buying in France or Germany.
I wonder what they’ll tell their Belgian, Dutch and Danish retailers when they come asking why their competitors in neighbouring countries get all the profits from what they would normally consider their customers.
“Yeah, sorry, our understanding of the European market is stuck in the 90s. This free trade thing is such a new concept, we are as surprised and shocked as you are, honestly!”
I love the way people immediately jump to the assumption that the delays mean that Microsoft is unable to release in those countries at the same time – which is clearly, indisputably wrong. They easily have the resources to do that, if they wanted to. Realistically, it’s much more likely that they compared the projected benefits of simultaneous launch in those countries, against the projected costs, and decided that the former didn’t justify the latter.
Microsoft also probably realizes that consoles have a slightly longer shelf-life than, say, theatrical releases of films. A (let’s say) 6-month delay for a console is not going to hurt it that much, especially for a device that’s expected to be on the market for 5-10 years.
Riiiiiiiiiight, because it’s not as if Microsoft’s home country is part of a continent-wide free trade agreement that’s been place for nearly 20 years now (*cough* NAFTA *cough*).
I love the way how people jump to the conclusion that capabiltity was referring to being able to do it
What I meant is that some companies thinkg they can treat different regions of the same single market like they used to treat different country markets.
I.e. they lost the capability or maybe better opportunityto not release.
Sure, but that wasn’t what I pointed at. There is no 6-month delay, the product becomes effectively available to all EU customers in November.
You know, sarcasm.
That was exactly the point!
I suppose Microsoft doen’t launch the product in California and Nevada in November and New Mexico somewhen in 2014, does it?
I love the way how people jump to the conclusion that capabiltity was referring to being able to do it
[/q]
Yes, why ever would I leap to that conclusion, just because that’s how the word “capability” is specifically defined…
ca·pa·bil·i·ty, noun
the quality or state of being capable; also : ability
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capability
Can you at least grasp that the EU as a “single market” has some challenges to simultaneous release, that make it different from (say) the US as a “single market”? Hell, even a simultaneous release across the entirety of North America means localizing to a grand total of 3 official languages… compared to, what, 20-25 for the EU?
So I guess there’s nothing to complain about then, is there?
You know, sarcasm.
That was exactly the point!
I suppose Microsoft doen’t launch the product in California and Nevada in November and New Mexico somewhen in 2014, does it? [/q]
Are you honestly trying to suggest that releasing a console simultaneously in 3 American states is no different than simultaneously releasing it in 8 separate EU countries?