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While internet news sources today have reported that Microsoftis readying to launch its next generation Xbox hardware in America andEurope in the fourth quarter of this year, Eurogamer has learnt thatthe specific timing for the machine's roll-out is late October or earlyNovember, and merely weeks after the US launch. The exact date is yetto be solidified.
Speaking under conditions of strict anonymity, senior American andBritish development, publishing and retail sources have confirmed thelaunch window in the past weeks.
It is also now widely known among British sources that Microsoft UK iscurrently in the planning stages of a spectacular and unprecedentedlaunch event in central London for the winter release.
While it has been accepted for some time that Xbox 2, currentlycodenamed Xenon, would be released in America before the end oftheyear, the news of a late October/early November launch in both theUK and Europe will send shockwaves through the industry and gamingcommunity on this side of the Atlantic.
Many have expressed concern that Microsoft is forcing the nextgeneration of console hardware too early, and that the currentgeneration still has much to achieve. The most famous example of thiscame from then Nintendo of Europe MD David Gosen speaking at an ELSPAsummit in London last October, where he lambasted Microsoft for pushinga next generation machine to market in 2005, and even went sofar as toquestion Microsoft's motivation as profit.
Source: EuroGamer