http://www.gamereactor.eu/news/102544/Source%3A+Xbox+One+hitting+delayed+regions+Q3+2014/

*Nordic is more correct but the topic got too long!

Holy shit you guys, if this is true then wtf is Microsoft doing? This means it launches here AFTER games like Titanfall has been released and close to Destiny's release date in September. I really truly hope this is wrong.

What in the world can the reason be?

QA to ensure Kinect is compatible with the curazzzyyy EU languages.

If that is true they are not even trying anymore. They are going to lose a lot of players to Playstation and rightfully so I might say: It's a competition and if you can't deliver your product then you're going to lose.

At least they will have an awesome launch lineup. Honestly, both systems would've benefitted from a Fall 2014 release date.

Huh, using the Kinect voice commands as a crutch for their UI interactions is going to be their bane

Neither system would have, to delay the "next generation" by another year would have been pretty bad, considering what Nvidia have been doing with pc games support, it would have just put people off even more, plus the strong rumour/expectation that the nvidia 800 series being released next year (not to mention steam box). Fall 2014 as a release date for these consoles *would have been a very bad choice

Europe is a tier 3 "country" now?

What about Ja....... Oh never mind.

Oof. Come on, MS, get with it.

Well, if this is true that will be the longest I've ever had a pre-order in advance on a console... Also hilarious considering the Norwegian web store I pre-ordered my games from have started sending some of those out already :P (I have a copy of Forza 5 and DR3 at home without even a word on when the console might release really...)

Kinda feels like MS are throwing their arms up and just giving the rest of Europe over to Sony this generation without even trying....

Most people don't care about what PC gaming is doing as they will never build a gaming rig. And besides, with an extra year they could've bumped up their GPUs to the next highest model, which would probably be cheaper to them to source by then. And they would both have great launch lineups.

GAMEREACTOR SAID THAT!??! HOLY SHIT!!??

When did Giant Bomb become a link dumping ground for IGN, Eurogamer and Polygon as well as a place to regurgitate unsubstantiated news from GAF, Reddit and other random game sites?

Trusted sources... yeah right.

1 year later.... These consoles should have been 1 year faster (in terms of graphical performance ....)

I got my Xbox One so this is ok with me!

theres probably too many factors to figure into positives and negatives into releasing in fall 2014, and I personally think there would be more negatives, if you can sell 1 million units in the US alone in 24 hours, why wait another year in R&D and marketing costs (and the fact you need to make the ps3/360 interesting for another year, and you give the Wii U even more time to work itself out). But you're right the Nordic region will get an awesome launch lineup dependant on what we see coming out next year

I don't even have anything funny to say. If that's accurate, that's really Microsoft giving Sony a lot more room than they should.

Stephen Elop and Nokia, Don Mattrick and Microsoft's Entertainment division.

If this happens, it'll be a gigantic fuck up. These markets aren't a straight win for Sony, but Microsoft would basically give it out to them if One releases this late.

If they waited and additional year and kept the specs in flux, that means specs would be theoretical and not concrete and until specs are locked down its hard to optimise. Which means that truly optimised games that take advantage of the new hardware in a 2014 console release would start to come out in 2015....

And anyway both companies already had great launch line ups. with all the multiplatform/ cross generation games (Ac4 and Need for speed looked amazing ) and exclusives (to be fair I think XB1 was much better in this regard). It was about 10 times better than the PS2, PS3 and 360 launches.

@ninnanuam: I bought both consoles so it doesn't really matter much to me anyway. Just saying that Titanfall and Destiny at launch would've been major killer apps (from the looks of things).

Wait.... Xbox One isn't even in Europe yet?

Seriously. When the fuck is coming to Jamaica?

Be thankful you're not in Korea. We don't even have a release date yet. It was tentatively late 2014. Who knows when it'll show now.

In some way I can understand why they're not prioritizing us Scandis. Firstly, it's not a very big market. Secondly, I'm fairly sure Sony already has a much stronger presence. And thirdly (although somewhat contradictory to the second point) we're generally pretty wealthy and I wouldn't be surprised if the share of households with both is on the high end.

Not that I don't think it sucks, but it's far from the first time we've gotten the short end of the stick.

MS has already lost in those regions. PS4s are sold out everywhere here.

That is earlier than I've been hearing which was Q4 so at least they're moving up in the world of fiscal quarters.

Xbox One is like a Ford Pinto, nice to look at but is nothing more than a cover for being a piece of crap product that would only serve the company that released it if the general public forgot it ever existed.

@ares42: I don't know. Judging by friends, family and coworkers of mine, I am an extreme minority as a two console household. And others with two, the other one was/is usually Wii. But most either do only 360 or only PS3. But, anecdotal evidence is what it is.

If Kinect voice commands are really holding it back- they should just release a version without Kinect in the meantime.

BTW, Microsoft and every other freaking company in the world should just stop with all their region/language bullshit. I´m from Germany and have my Xbone set to English. My pronunciation is good enough for Kinect to work. Seriously.. Sweden and Norway have a lot of almost native English speakers. They can handle Kinect.

The only question is.. do they even want Kinect?

@superfriend Good point. I have the Kinect for 360 and managed to get it to work fine with voice commands both in English and Japanese even though I'm Norwegian. And, at a guess, I would think that those that are early adopters the majority would be people that are sufficiently proficient in English to make Kinect work for them as well. All this does really is make me feel as if MS thinks of the rest of Europe as "unimportant" markets in the same vein they are thinking of Japan as an "unimportant" market now, which sucks for someone like me that have had both the original Xbox and was there from the launch of the 360 :P

@ssully: Jamaican me crazy sully!

Thankfully there are better alternatives to that troublesome box for us Nordics.

Serious question, maybe someone can enlighten me on the issue. Why not just buy it from one of the countries that has it now?

Especially if you are a completely fluent English speaker like nearly every Scandinavian.

@superfriend: It's got nothing to do with localizing the language for the Kinect. It's more sinister than that. The way the Kinect is set up and transfers data in and out is in conflict with privacy and consumer rights laws in those countries. That's why it's taking so long. MS probably has to rewrite the entire OS to fit the bill. Maybe even drop Kinect from the SKU.

@brich That's out of the question in my own country(Norway) since the price limit before toll tax is 30 USD and has been that way since 1975(not adjusted for inflation). Anything over 200 is toll taxed by 50%. I can't even imagine how much a 500€ Xbone would cost a customer in toll alone.Alienware territory

@nekroskop Judging by the thread on diskusjon.no where some have successfully imported a Xbone from Germany or France (through the respective Microsoft Stores there) there doesn't seem to be any additional toll charges on it. From what I've read everyone of those have said the total has come to about 4200 kr, which is only about 200 kr above the price it has on the Norwegian Microsoft store. Personally think I will just keep my pre-order with the Norwegian store though rather than jump over and try to get one from one of those countries, but doesn't really seem to be a huge extra charge involved with doing so.

Ligner de ikke kan lide Skandinavien. :(

Edit:

Serious question, maybe someone can enlighten me on the issue. Why not just buy it from one of the countries that has it now?

Especially if you are a completely fluent English speaker like nearly every Scandinavian.

The issue is often about currency and support. I'm pretty Norway, Sweden, Denmark have their own currency instead of just the Euro so it is a hassle to buy things even if you flipped the market to English.

All points to there only being one "winner" this gen PS4. In terms of sales numbers surely worldwide they will far exceed Microsoft if this is true.

PS3 will win this war.. All I need to say is Dark Souls 2 & Persona 4. And yes, I do know dark souls 2 is also xbox360 but really now, who the hell hasn't owned a few of those?