Will the Xbox have a Merry Christmas?

There is one thing that no one in the console fraternity can deny; the Microsoft Xbox is the most powerful console available today and for the foreseeable future. The Xbox will be one year old in November in the United States while the console only launched in March around Europe, while sales in these two areas have on the whole been ok, in Japan the Xbox is still a big flop. Microsoft is estimated to lose anywhere from $76 to $150 on each Xbox which retails for $199 in the U.S. and around 249 euros (157 pounds) in Europe.  It is very hard to pinpoint exactly what is going wrong with sales in Japan, there are quite a few games out there that aim directly to the Japanese consumer but clearly something is lacking.

A bad Christmas in the United States and Europe sales wise could spell a big disaster for Microsoft who would find that their attempts to gain profit from the Xbox put back quite several years. Currently while the Xbox has overtaken sales of the Gamecube in the United States, in Europe the Xbox remains in third place behind both the Playstation 2 and the Nintendo Gamecube. The real question is – will Microsoft be able to pull out some great games to boost sales this Christmas.

For a start there is the Xbox Live! Launch – but the problem here is that it is looking increasingly unlikely that this will launch anywhere other than in the United States this year. The launch date for Europe’s Xbox Live! Service has yet to be announced, but so far no beta has yet to start in Europe and no announcement has been made (Although one is due very soon) as to when it will, but there is still the chance that it will launch at the same time as the United States service does. Japan will get its Xbox Live! Service around February 2003 as their beta will start in November.

While in theory Xbox Live! Won’t be the most important side to the Xbox in Europe right now due to most users still not taking up with broadband, games will be. The Xbox has had an obvious problem with gaining exclusive titles. If buying up companies like Rare is the only way that the Xbox can get exclusive titles then there will be a problem in the future as not every good company can be bought and paying out $300/$400 Million for each company won’t make viable sense. We can all state that games such as Final Fantasy are not the best gameplay wise, so many Xbox fans will state that they are not worried by not having the game on the Xbox. But the fact is that games like that sell well, and they sell consoles.

Currently the Xbox has few exclusive titles, though come Christmas there will be a small group of exclusive titles and some hopefully great games released. The best looking titles this Christmas seem to be the following:

• Blinx
• Whacked!
• Splinter Cell
• Unreal Championship (Xbox Live!)
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
• Shenmue II
• MechAssault

So it seems like there are at least a few good looking exclusives on the way, even if most of them are being made by Microsoft’s own companies. Companies such as Rockstar games, EA Sports etc have decided to take most of their games to the Playstation 2, which means not Grand Theft Auto games until at least 2005 while EA Sports games will still come out on the Xbox, there won’t be Xbox Live! support.

Clearly Microsoft won’t give up on the Xbox even If it does have a bad Christmas run, but it will be quite a setback for them, if there continues to be a lack of companies wanting to go with exclusive titles for the Xbox then there will be even bigger problems next year as Microsoft can’t go on buying companies for exclusives indefinitely. Let’s just hope the future is rosier and that many, many people have an Xbox under their Christmas tree this year.

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