14 DAY TRIAL // The team at Microsoft in charge of the Xbox One home console announces that it plans to launch the next-gen device in 26 new countries in September of this year, which means that it will be available officially on almost all major markets in the world.
The list posted by Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president of marketing, strategy and business, on the Xbox Wire is made up of:
Argentina Belgium Chile Colombia Czech Republic Denmark Finland Greece Hungary India Israel Japan Korea Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Slovakia South Africa Sweden Switzerland Turkey UAE
It’s unclear what kind of impact the launch of the Xbox One in the new territories will have given that a lot of dedicated gamers have probably already procured an imported device since it became available in November of last year.
Yusuf Mehdi also reveals that, at the moment, the launch of Titanfall, the first-person shooter from developer Respawn Entertainment and publisher Electronic Arts, has become the most successful ever seen on the Xbox One.
He adds, “In fact, last week we saw the highest number of hours logged on Xbox Live since the launch of Xbox One. Now it’s time to ensure even more fans around the world can enjoy Xbox One. So today we’re proud to share that it will be available in 26 additional markets in September this year.”
It seems that Microsoft is getting ready to offer potential buyers more information towards the end of April, which probably means mostly prices in the local currency and probably details about the titles that will be offered on launch and maybe some promotional bundles.
Microsoft needs to make its next-gen console available on as many markets as possible fast in order to give it a chance to close the sales gap that’s being opened by the rival PlayStation 4 from Sony, which is already over the 6 million units sold mark.
Both companies are facing some issues with their supply chain at the moment, but they are saying that this should be entirely eliminated by the middle of this year.
Microsoft has recently announced that it is working on a new firmware patch for the Xbox One, which is scheduled to be delivered in April and will introduce some extra stability and changes to some core social elements.
Rumors suggest that an Xbox One without the attached Kinect sensor might be launched officially in 2015 for a lower price.