15:43 It might have gone down like a very cool pint on a hot summer\'s day in the US, but for Xbox, Europe and Japan are a different story. According to reports from the land of the yen, the initial week of launch sales of 123,000 have dropped to around 12,000 units, and reports of retailers in Europe possibly being forced to cut prices in order to get boxes out the door are already surfacing. Although unconfirmed, UK sales could have dropped as low as 2000 units in the last week.
It seems that Microsoft has stepped into the ring with the mighty Sony and Nintendo, armed with a massive marketing campaign but only two real killer apps (Halo and Dead Or Alive 3), and come out with two black eyes and its shorts around its ankles.
Microsoft, however, is showing no signs of weakness, especially in regard to the European market. "We are very pleased with the success of Xbox in Europe to date," stated Sandy Duncan, Xbox Europe boss.
Senior industry sources are painting a different picture though, and are likening Xbox to Sega\'s ill-fated Dreamcast. After an initial success, sales of the machine dropped rapidly - anyone who wanted one bought one quickly, and further take-up was slow. According to industry sources, the main thorn in Xbox\'s side is its lack of killer games titles.
Market analyst SoundView Technology is currently predicting that that Microsoft won\'t be hitting its target of 1.5 million Xbox unit sales in Europe in the first three months of the console\'s existence. The figure, according to the group, is more likely to be around the 1 million mark.
The analyst also predicts that Microsoft will fail to reach its target of between 4.5 million and 6 million console sales worldwide within Xbox\'s first eight months. 4.3 million will be the likely figure, says SoundView.
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