In all the discussion regarding sales of the new game consoles from Sony and Microsoft, one important point is too often overlooked — the Xbox One is available in significantly fewer territories than the PlayStation 4. Sony had a huge jump on Microsoft in the international market, but by the end of September, the two consoles will finally be on a relatively level playing field.
Microsoft announced on the Xbox Wire on Tuesday that the Xbox One would be launching in 29 new territories before the end of the month. Here’s a complete list of dates:
9/2: Chile and Colombia
9/4: Japan
9/5: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates
9/15: Israel
9/23: Hong Kong, India, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan
9/23: China
9/26: Russia
For Xbox fans, the explanation for the console’s lack of runaway success always came down to one issue: availability. You simply couldn’t get the Xbox in some of the most important video game markets on the planet, most notably Japan, but that won’t be true in less than 30 days. It’s going to take time for Microsoft to make an impact in countries where the PS4 has already taken over the living room, but at least we’ve finally got a fair fight.
