The chief operating officer of Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that the Xbox game console will be launched in Japan on Feb. 22 as scheduled.
Richard Belluzo noted that earlier reports from Taiwan had confused his comments on the launch dates for Europe and Japan.
"We're on track for launch of the product here in Japan, and we're very, very excited," he said at a news conference in Tokyo.
Belluzo stressed that the firm's entry into the Japanese game market is based on long-term strategies, with an eye for development of future-generation machines of Xbox, the first full-fledged hardware product for the world's largest computer software company.
Hirohisa Ohura, managing director at Japanese subsidiary Microsoft Co., said there has been no trouble in supplies of parts for the Japanese launch of Xbox.
He added, however, that online services for Xbox will start within six months of the launch, rather than on the launch day itself.
Broadband connectivity is on of the main features of Xbox, which is set to compete with Sony Corp.'s PlayStation2 and Nintendo's GameCube.
Belluzo predicted that recovery growth of the information technology industry will start sometime in the middle of next year.
"For the next quarter or two, we'll see conflicting signals, but a fairly stable environment."
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