Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Wednesday he expects successful launches of the Xbox 360 game console in the United States, Europe and even in Japan — the stronghold of its archrival Sony Corp.’s blockbuster machine PlayStation.
“We have very strong momentum, particularly in the northern parts of Europe, United States, Australia … I know for sure, 100 percent, we will do much better in Japan than we did with Xbox 1,” Ballmer told a news conference in Tokyo, where he was helping to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Microsoft’s Japan unit.
Microsoft will be the first of the three major companies to launch a new console when the Xbox 360 hits store shelves in North America on November 22. Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Revolution are expected sometime later in 2006.
