The Xbox One has been pushed back to 2014 in eight countries, Microsoft confirmed late yesterday.
Gamers who want to snag the latest console in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland will have to wait now until an unspecified date next year.
The Xbox One will still be released in November in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand.
Microsoft sent out a statement which we received last night. It read ‘At E3, we announced that Xbox One would be available in 21 markets around the world at launch. This was an aggressive goal and the team has been working very hard to deliver Xbox One to as many markets as possible.'
The company has said they needed to do this to ‘meet demand'. It appears the United Kingdom and United States are one of the ‘more important' markets they consider.
They added “While we wish we could launch Xbox One simultaneously in these markets, there are many factors that determine the timing of specific market launches. This includes work to localise the Xbox One dash, incorporate additional voice and languages, and build partnerships to bring apps and meaningful local content to each country.”We understand this will be disappointing news for our fans in the impacted countries, and we are doing everything we can to bring Xbox One to you as soon as possible next year.”
The Playstation 4 seems to be on target in all countries although some of the larger retailers such as Amazon UK have posted a disclaimer saying that if the PS4 was preordered after August 6th then the customer may not get hold of it on launch day. The demand is that high.
Kitguru says: Demand for both seems to be high, but Sony haven't restricted the country list for launch day. Yet anyway.
I see the PS4 getting far ahead of the Xbox One in those countries…