Microsoft delays Xbox launch

Bill Gates' kiss to the world will come later than previously envisaged

Microsoft's Xbox release in the US will be one week delayed, the company has said, refusing to specify how many games consoles will be available when it is finally launched.

Sony's Playstation2 hit the market first

The announcement came just five weeks after the company rigorously denied an analyst's warning that the launch that would mark its move from software making into hardware making would be delayed.

The $299 (£210) device had initially been scheduled for release on 8 November.

It will now be launched on 15 November instead, just a few days ahead of the launch of its competitor Nintendo's GameCube, according to Xbox's director of sales and marketing, John O'Rourke.

Another rival's new product, Sony's Playstation2, has been launched already.

No reason

"We just looked at a bunch of things and just simply said, 'You know, 15 November is going to be the right date'," Mr O'Rourke said, declining to give a reason for the delay.

Analysts had warned that delays were likely

Mr O'Rourke also said the company's previous estimate that between 600,000 and 800,000 Xboxes would be available on the launch day had been abolished.

He declined to predict how many would now be available on 15 November.

Previous delay

The US delay follows an announcement late last month that the Xbox's launch in Japan would be delayed until 22 February.

Microsoft is already a major player in games software

Analysts' previous warnings that a design problem with the Xbox's motherboard would cause a delay had been dismissed by Microsoft.

Some of them felt Friday's announcement proved they were right.

"This is clearly a production issue," said Gartner's researcher P J McNealy, though he described the delay as embarrassing rather than as damaging to Microsoft.

"There's still plenty of holiday season time to buy things," McNealy said. "From an industry perspective, though, it's a black eye."