Thursday July 5, 6:21 PM
Microsoft to launch Xbox 360 Elite in Japan in Oct
TOKYO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it would
launch the advanced version of its Xbox 360 game console, Xbox
360 Elite, on October 11 in Japan, a country where sales of its
game gear trail far behind rival machines from Nintendo Co.
Ltd. and Sony Corp.
The Elite's 120-gigabyte hard drive, six times bigger than
the regular Xbox 360's hard drive and twice as big as that of
Sony's PlayStation 3 console, can store thousands of songs as
well as a library of high-definition TV shows, movies and
arcade games. It will sell for 47,800 yen ($390), compared with
29,800 yen for the most basic version of the Xbox 360.
Although popular in the United States, the Xbox 360 has
seen slow sales in Japan. Microsoft sold 122,565 of the
consoles in the first half of this year in Japan, the home turf
of Sony and Nintendo, according to data from game magazine
publisher Enterbrain.
Nintendo sold 1.78 million units of its Wii and Sony sold
503,554 of its PS3 consoles during the same period.
The basic model of the PS3 sells for 49,980 yen in Japan,
while the Wii sells for half that.
The Xbox 360 Elite is already sold in North America for
$480.
($1=122.71 Yen)
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