PS4 And Xbox One - The Realistic Launch Dates

Microsoft's Xbox One

History Says: Xbox - Release Dates JP February 22, 2002 Friday NA November 15, 2001 Thursday EU March 14, 2002 Thursday AUS March 14, 2002 Thursday Xbox 360 - Release Dates JP December 10, 2005 Saturday NA November 22, 2005 Tuesday EU December 2, 2005 Friday AUS March 23, 2006 Thursday Points Of Note: - In the US games are released on a Tuesday as stock is distributed on Monday, the first day of the working week. The Xbox 360 was launched on a Tuesday in the US. This proved to be highly successful for Microsoft and they will likely repeat this decision for the Xbox One. - The US and EU have been classed as 'Tier 1' launch areas, Japan is 'Tier 2' , Australia - whilst un-tiered at this time - seems to be at about Tier 1.3. - Considering how the Xbox 360 has been largely unsuccessful in Japan, one would expect Microsoft to put Australia in higher esteem than their neighbours. (Completely unintentional Neighbours gag there.) Microsoft's Behaviour Says: Team Xbox's priorities have been switching fairly swiftly of late. In the space of a month they announced a games console and then changed almost everything about it in order to improve pre-order numbers. One thing that they haven't changed however is their allegiance with Activision's next entry in the Call of Duty series 'Ghosts' and the exclusive content they have announced for Xbox One owners. Titanfall, the other big name for Xbox One is a timed console exclusive so they don't need to worry about it so much. Which would make the next Call of Duty Microsoft's main concern as it's going to be one of their main selling points. Now, think about this logically. It is, at this time, almost essential for Microsoft that the Xbox One comes out first over the PlayStation 4. They will almost certainly wait until after the Gamescom event in Germany this August to make any formal announcements regarding the launch date. This is the only way to guarantee that they will get the jump on Sony; who, if the increasing rumours are true, will announce the formal launch date of the PlayStation 4 during the event in Germany. On top of that Microsoft will not want to risk those that have already placed pre-orders for the Xbox One purchasing Call of Duty: Ghosts on Xbox 360. Such a thing might push casual consumers towards the opinion that they've already played the game that they were most excited about on the Xbox One and that they are too used to the Xbox 360 version to really care about the Xbox One, and far worse, cancelling their pre-order in the process. Microsoft can't allow that to happen and the only way to prevent it is to release the Xbox One in the US and UK on the international release date of Call of Duty: Ghosts - which would be Tuesday November 5th 2013. Microsoft have been somewhat blunt about their Japanese launch date, stating that the big JP is a 'Tier 2' launch country (placing the US & EU as 'Tier 1') and as such the console will not be launched until early 2014. But they haven't said very much regarding their Australian launch. It is unlikely that the land down under will miss a Christmas 2013 launch date as the pre-order numbers there are good news for Microsoft, unlike Japan. So it will boil down to stock levels. On the whole an Oz 2013 launch seems almost certain. Microsoft can't really risk further negative press by delaying a launch in an area which has, like the US and EU, been given a supposed '2013' launch year. Which would be nice as Australia, like the EU, usually gets a raw deal with console launches. Again it all boils down to stock - but if you're an Australian Xbox fan then things look good for you. PREDICTED XBOX ONE LAUNCH DATE: JP March 22, 2014 Saturday NA November 5, 2013 Tuesday EU November 5, 2013 Tuesday AUS November 19, 2013 Thursday So there you have it. What says you, fellow gamers? Do you agree with this logic, or do you feel that it will be different dates entirely? Either way, be sure to comment below.