Xbox One Limited To 21 Countries At Launch

[Irridium]

And how many countries will the PS4 work in?

Spoiler: Well...

Also, while it sucks the PS4 now requires PS+ for you to play multiplayer online, it seems that if just one account has PS+, all other accounts on the system can play online.

https://twitter.com/yosp/status/344369977438126080

Which is awesome for households with more than one person who plays games. Compared to XBL where each individual must pay.

So... yeah.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Hey, Microsoft! Looks like you're gonna need this:

Ya know, for all them holes your digging.

Spoiler: No, no, no, they will be needing this

I am just baffled how many more customers is Microsoft going to alienate. They have now eliminated the vast majority of the entire PLANET. Good job guys.

 

[NiPah]

"Omits nations like Portugal, Japan, Ukraine, Greece and Poland." I dont know if you guys follow the news, but the populations of Greece and Portugal do not have much disposable income at the moment, businesses are fleeing both countries and youth (the people most likely to buy these consoles) unemployment is at record levels of 65% and 40+% respectively. The 360 never sold well in Japan and Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe. You can criticise Microsoft for a lot of things relating to the xbone, but this just seems like a smart business decision to me in that they are focusing their resources on the areas where they are actually going to make reasonable returns.

So Poland and Japan can make Metal Gear Solid 5 and The Witcher 3, however if they want to play them they're shit out of luck because their country isn't a financially viable market for Microsoft.
I can't want to see how much support those game developers are going to give to a console that can't even play in their country.

 

[AlwaysPractical]

This reminds me of that terrible joke in Quantum Conundrum... "every day I'm shovelling".

Glad to see that I can tell all my friends (who primarily live in Africa and Asia) that they can't buy this crap, so I won't have to convince them not to buy this crap. Good work MS, I'm looking forward to release figures and Microsoft execs stammering in interviews in December, all saying "we don't know what we did wrong". I will be reading those interviews with a smug grin, stroking either my PS4 or my gaming PC while I do.

 

[Drauger]

Crap now this really makes me mad, now i can't officially not buy the shitty console.

Funny how there were some of my friends still sayin " well I can afford a xbone yadada yadada yada" guess they won't after all XD

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

So Poland and Japan can make Metal Gear Solid 5 and The Witcher 3, however if they want to play them they're shit out of luck because their country isn't a financially viable market for Microsoft.

Multiplatform games are a bad example for what you're trying to say.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

CD Project Red should cut ties with MS ASAP for excluding their home-country, quite an insult. Witcher 3 with the PC as main platform and PS4 and WiiU ports. I wonder if there are any legal ramifications which would prevent them from doing so?

Yeah, the contracts for The Witcher 3 on Xbone would already be signed and locked in. Cutting it now would be asking for MS to tear them a new arsehole and MS would. They can't have launch title devs jumping ship.

 

[jpoon]

wow, the idiots running microshaft really are total douchebags.

I can only hope this really fucks them over because they deserve the hell out of it.

 

[Nowhere Man]

I've. I've never witnessed a product failure of this magnitude before. It's actually a thing of wonder to behold. The scope is astounding. This is one for the history books and I will be telling my children this story, and they will tell their children and so on and so on..

 

[NiPah]

So Poland and Japan can make Metal Gear Solid 5 and The Witcher 3, however if they want to play them they're shit out of luck because their country isn't a financially viable market for Microsoft.

Multiplatform games are a bad example for what you're trying to say.

I would name exclusives but there are none, going further into detail that yes they can play them on other systems would be redundant, the point is they cannot play the consumer version of a game they developed on a system they developed for in their home country.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Romania is not even is sight!

Not that I care, but I really hope my romanian fellows will buy a PS4 and PC instead of an XBone.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I was watching E3 when Sony walked out and simply announced that the PS1 would be $100 less than the Saturn, after the spectacular backfire of Sega announcing the console being available NOW when the launch titles weren't ready from third parties. This is spectacularly worse, on a magnitude I couldn't conceive a company of reaching. I can say without hyperbole that only an intentional sabotage could match an E3 with this level of complete failure.

 

[smithy_2045]

ITT: People who have no understanding of how to run a profitable business and/or just want to bash Microsoft because reasons.

Just like every major console release, demand for consoles will exceed supply at launch. It makes a lot of sense that they focus the supply on the regions where they expect to sell the most consoles, and when supply increases then launch the console in other regions.

They are not keeping the console out of these regions permanently, they are delaying the release. The anti-Xbox1/MS hysteria is well beyond ridiculous now.

 

[Rainforce]

hmmmm where have I read that story before....

Spoiler: oh right

KEEP DIGGING GUYS, YOU'LL GET THERE EVENTUALLY.

EDIT:

ITT: People who have no understanding of how to run a profitable business and/or just want to bash Microsoft because reasons.

well, of course most of us don't and the the whole reasons thing is obvious, I mean it's what we gather from articles and watching the stuff Microsoft does. But, if I REEAAAAALLLY don't want to buy their console because they're just shitty at selling their product to me (it's unappealing and disgusts me, mostly [although MGS5? nice. Still only a drop of water in an ocean of shit]), how can you think that they have any idea about running a profitable business? They're suicidal, they're not even TRYING to satisfy their customers anymore. And those customers are the source of their income in the end. And that can kinda not really work out.

 

[Jingle Fett]

And they think this might not have consequences even in those countries that are supported? The only reason I ever did have Xbox Live on the 360 was so I could play multiplayer with my friends, a significant majority of which live abroad, who happen to live in one of the countries NOT supported. I doubt I'm alone, how many people from foreign countries move to the US (or other countries) and want to keep in touch with old friends? How many servicemen/women have friends in foreign countries they'd like to play with? How many people have made foreign friends by playing online over the last decade?
So though I live in one of the supported countries, MS has taken away one of my few legitimate reasons for still being interested in the Xbox One.

On another note, wow they're omitting CHINA? The country that alone is 1/7th of the world's population? I can understand smaller countries and whatnot, but cutting out such a large number of the population is incredibly stupid. India too.
Now MS can totally be profitable with what they're doing, they really can...but they're going to have to accept they're aiming for what is essentially a niche market, and I don't think that's their intention.

 

[Jadak]

"Omits nations like Portugal, Japan, Ukraine, Greece and Poland." I dont know if you guys follow the news, but the populations of Greece and Portugal do not have much disposable income at the moment, businesses are fleeing both countries and youth (the people most likely to buy these consoles) unemployment is at record levels of 65% and 40+% respectively. The 360 never sold well in Japan and Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe. You can criticise Microsoft for a lot of things relating to the xbone, but this just seems like a smart business decision to me in that they are focusing their resources on the areas where they are actually going to make reasonable returns.

Definitely agree with this. The only one that surprised me was Japan, but then I looked it and apparently, 'The 360 never sold well in Japan' is rather an understatement as apparently it's current market share in the country rounds roughly to 0%.

So yeah, they've got the majority of the market that is likely to do them any good, and anyone missing will likely be pulled in later on, if merited.

 

[Jadak]

On another note, wow they're omitting CHINA? The country that alone is 1/7th of the world's population? I can understand smaller countries and whatnot, but cutting out such a large number of the population is incredibly stupid. India too.
Now MS can totally be profitable with what they're doing, they really can...but they're going to have to accept they're aiming for what is essentially a niche market, and I don't think that's their intention.

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/...uld-be-Lifted--Manufacturer-Shares-Surge.html

As of January, video game consoles are banned in China. Not going to bother researching any further, but I will assume that is still the case that decision is not up to Microsoft.

As for India,

http://www.bgr.in/news/xbox-one-india-launch-scheduled-for-late-2014-a-year-after-us-and-europe/

Apparently countries like India, South Korea and South-east Asia in general are set for 2014. Not much explanation beyond speculation that they're still hoping to milk the 360 market there. Possibly a bad move on that front, but I'm not sure what those markets are like either.

 

[Vivid Kazumi]

the list is still subject to change.though i'm not suprised considering that ms has to negoiate with all retailers just so they impliment the whole used game thing .

 

[Avalanche91]

considering the consumers kinda lose the right to first sale or however it's called with xbone, are they even allowed to sell in Europe?

I'm asking because it would be hilarious to have the Xbone pulled from shelves a month after release.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

"Xbox One games are for activation and distribution only in specified geographic regions. See game package and/or retailer product information, for each game?s specific geographic regions."

So, this is basically the end for any and all user choice? No more importing games? No more buying outside your dedicated and retarded region? No more playing games in their original languages, just consume the dubbed stuff, will ya? Oh, Microsoft. I am not certain you're aware of how messed up this is.