Impressive details of Microsoft's XBox strategy, on the run-up to the holiday season are beginning to emerge. The most impressive of those plans is the, expected, European price cut on the console which will bring its UK street value to just under GBP 100.
There is however, a down side to the announcements as the release dates for a variety of titles, including Halo 2, have been pushed back.
XBox Live
In a further demonstration of Microsoft's infatuation with its online service, the company just announced a variety of XBox Live promotion initiatives. The most exciting one for Xbox owners is the launch, in the U.S., of a scheme that offers two free, trial months of the service to anyone who buys one of the 50 or so XBox Live enabled games currently available. The same promotion is also expected to arrive in Europe on October 17, about the time of the price cut.
The full list of games, in the U.S., included in the offer is as follows:
Acclaim: NBA Jam, Burnout 2: Point of Impact (Developer's Cut), All-Star Baseball 2005 featuring Derek Jeter
Activision: Cabela's Deer Hunt: 2004 Season, Cabela's Dangerous Hunts
Atari: Unreal II: The Awakening, Magic: The Gathering - Battlegrounds, Dead Man's Hand
Codemasters: Pro Race Driver PRDXL
ESPN Videogames: ESPN NHL Hockey, ESPN NFL Football, ESPN NBA Basketball, ESPN NCAA College Hoops
Jaleco: World Championship Pool 2004
Konami: Dance Dance Revolution UltraMix
LucasArts: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Knight Academy
Majesco: Black9
Microsoft Game Studios: Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, Counter-Strike for Xbox, Project Gotham Racing 2, NBA Inside Drive 2004, NFL Fever 2004, NHL Rivals 2004, Top Spin, Links 2004, Amped 2
Sega: Sega GT Online
Take 2 Interactive: Conflict: Desert Storm 2 - Back to Baghdad
Tecmo: Ninja Gaiden
Ubi Soft: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, XIII
Vivendi Universal Games: Hunter: The Reckoning Redeemer, S.W.A.T. Global Strike Team.
Microsoft will also release a standalone XBox Communicator allowing those who are on the XBox Live trial to sample the delights of virtual profanity.
Halo 2, initially expected this holiday season, was first delayed to Q1, 2004, the latest news however, suggests that the title has been pushed back a further two months to April 2004. Halo PC also slipped but only a couple of weeks and is expected on October 10, 2003. Other XBox delays include Kameo: Elements Of Power (June 2004) and Ninja Gaiden (April, 2004).
In a strange twist then, Microsoft are left with very few exciting new titles on their holiday line-up, the most notable being Counter-Strike and Project Gotham Racing 2. The first two quarters of 2004 however, promise to be much more exciting for XBox owners.
