An official Microsoft press release has re-iterated many of the key points
recently made by Peter Moore in his DICE Summit talk last week about the Xbox 360, as well as adding new information about attach rates, global launch updates, and manufacturing
The company has reiterated that it is on track to meet its shipment goal of 4.5-5.5 million units by June, and assembly will be further boosted by third manufacturing partner Celestica, joining manufacturers Flextronics and Wistron - though it made no official comment on
recent reports that Infineon Technologies' memory chips were the particular constricting factor in the slow Xbox 360 roll-out to date.
In addition, the firm updated on regional release date. The Xbox 360 is now available in Mexico and Colombia as of February 2 – apparently the first simultaneous launch for a videogame product in Latin America, according to Microsoft. The system will launch in Korea on February 24, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore on March 16, Australia and New Zealand on March 23, with a global presence in 30 countries by the end of March.
A particularly interesting area reported by Microsoft were selected highlights from yesterday's January NPD report for North American hardware and software sales. These include news that Xbox 360’s software attach rate is 3.7 games per console. This apparently remains the highest attach rate ever for the first three months of a console launch in the U.S., but is obviously positively affected by the supply problems of the console. In addition, Xbox 360’s accessory attach rate is 2.9 accessory units sold per console with a wireless controllers attaching to almost every console.
Finally, Microsoft officially updated on Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 Live Arcade games due out during the month of February. Sega's
Full Auto and EA Sports'
Fight Night: Round 3 have or will debut for Xbox 360 at retail, and the Xbox 360 Live Arcade service will get Popcap's
Astropop, Sprout Games'
Feeding Frenzy, and iWin's
Jewel Quest.
