Microsoft reveals Xbox launch date

NEWS Microsoft announced the European launch date for its Xbox games console in a glitzy ceremony in Cannes last night. Microsoft said the long-awaited Xbox will premiere on 14 March 2002 and will cost £299. The console is Microsoft's first significant foray in the consumer hardware space, and will compete with Sony's Playstation 2 and Nintendo's GameCube. The launch of the new machine has already been hit by a series of delays in both the US and Japan, but Microsoft maintains it is still on course to capture the all-important Christmas market in the US.