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The game-lovers have a reason to cheer. Microsoft Corporation had announced its plan of tripling the storage capacity of its Xbox 360 video-game console. The largest software maker of the world seems to have taken this decision, to compete with market leaders Nintendo Company and Sony Corporation. The new Xbox 360, with 60 gigabytes of storage, is expected to have a launch price of $349.
The new Xbox by Microsoft will be available at stores in the US and Canada, by early August. The statement released by the company also conveyed that Microsoft will bring down the price of its 20-gigabyte Xbox 360 to $299, the scheme being open “while supplies last''. According to NPD Group Inc, a Port Washington, New York-based market researcher, in the first five months of 2008, the sales of Xbox in US were far behind those of Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3.
While Nintendo sold 2.8 million Wii players, Sony sold 1.2 million PS3 consoles. In all this, Microsoft was much behind, managing a sale of only 1.12 million Xbox 360s. This is believed to be the real reason which promoted Microsoft to launch the new product. While Sony has launched new games and a Blu-ray DVD player to up its sales, Nintendo Co still relies on its Wii, which comes for $249.99 on a stand-alone basis. Whether Microsoft manages to up its position or not, is still left to be seen.
