Xbox Live Launch Before December End; ISP Issues Being Sorted Out
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) India held a press conference in Mumbai to officially announce that xBox Live will be launched in India before the end of December. Readers will remember that the launched had been rumoured to be around September end, or around the festive season of Diwali (Nov 9). MS is still not talking about how many consoles they have sold in India so far, as per company policy. However, Mohit Anand, Country Manager for Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division did say that they’re having problems with some of the ISPs - “To give you a classic example, the Sify solution that is available today, the broadband solution technically has a problem with the Xbox Live service. And that’s a fact. Because they are using a technology, which is kind of archaic.” More on the presscon at Techshout and GameGuru.
Xbox Live is important for MS since it will help them deliver patches to the consoles and multiplayer gaming will add more value to an expensive device with expensive games that is otherwise easily available in the gray markets in India.
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Comments (1)
Sep 23, 2007 2:43 PM
Strategic move… Gaming everyone says is going to be big in India. But this will still require some more time. The experience with X-Box is great, but with a franction of Indians on Broadband will this be accepted well. Gaming will still follow the adoption first on the mobile phones, then on the regular computer screens and internet. Post all this adoptions a user will mature to buy a gaming console. X- Box live is one step forward towards getting the user closer to gaming.