Microsoft Corp said sales of its Xbox 360 video-game console will gain from a possible delay in Sony Corp's PlayStation 3, helping it steal share in the US$28.5 billion industry.
"We want to win," Andres Vejarano, regional marketing manager for Asia, excluding Japan, said by telephone from Hong Kong yesterday.
"Any delay does give us a first mover advantage. It benefits us," he said.
Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker and No. 2 in game systems, is betting on the Xbox 360 to help trim its reliance on the Windows program, which powers 95 percent of all personal computers. The Redmond, Washington-based company has spent more than US$12 billion developing the Xbox 360, which it will sell in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan from Thursday.
The Xbox 360 has met with "phenomenal" demand from pre-sales marketing in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, Vejarano said. "We want to make sure we've enough Xbox 360 for every consumer who wants to buy during the launch," he said.
The company's game player sold out within hours at outlets and online retailers -- including Amazon.com Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc -- when it was first released on Nov. 22 in the US.
Microsoft delayed sales of the Xbox 360 from an earlier scheduled March 2 in the three Asian countries because of "unprecedented global consumer demand out stripping inventory supply," Vejarano said.
The firm has added Toronto-based Celestica Inc as its third Xbox 360 maker, after Hsinchu, Taiwan-based Wistron Corp (
The Xbox 360 will be priced from US$300 to US$330 for a basic set, and US$380 to US$410 for a package including a hard-disk drive and wireless controller, in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, Vejarano said.
Microsoft started selling the basic system at US$299 and the package at US$399 in the US.
Tokyo-based Sony, the world's second-biggest consumer electronics maker, last month said a postponement of the PlayStation 3 can't be ruled out after Merrill Lynch & Co reported a delay of as much as a year because of issues such as adding the Blu-ray high-definition DVD player to the console.
"There are no changes in our plan to release PlayStation 3 in spring," said Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, the firm's games division, yesterday.
No date has been set, he said.
Microsoft is "on track" to meet its 4.5 million to 5.5 million unit sales target by June, Vejarano said, declining to give specific forecasts for geographic regions.
The company had sold 1.01 million Xbox 360 machines in the US as of Feb. 25, according to a JPMorgan Chase & Co report dated Monday. JPMorgan expects Asia to account for about 8 percent of Xbox 360 sales, similar to the contribution of the original Xbox consoles.
"We believe most of the uptake in Xbox 360 will be driven mainly by demand from US, Europe and the rest of Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, like Korea and Australia," analysts Adam Holt, Aaron Schwartz and Nitin Doke wrote.
The global video-games industry is expected to expand to about US$42 billion by 2010, according to San Diego-based DFC Intelligence. Microsoft may win as much as 40 percent market share with the Xbox 360, the researcher said.
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