Microsoft Corp., along with its manufacturing partner Flextronics Corp., today announced plans to establish a manufacturing and assembly operation for the Xbox in China later this year. The companies also stated that the console manufacturing operation in Hungary would be relocated to Doumen, China. In addition to the Xbox operations at Flextronics' Guadalajara, Mexico, facility and the new operations in China, Microsoft will add another facility in Asia in the future.

A smash hit in its rookie season, this franchise will include several new customization and presentation features and gameplay enhancements. In "NFL Fever 2003," gamers can customize uniforms, playbooks and plays. "NFL Fever 2003" updates will include up-to-date rosters, the NFL’s new eight-division format, the new expansion team, the Houston Texans, and new stadiums for the Bears, Lions and Patriots. The gridiron game also will feature online capabilities. Check these nifty screens.

Through a carefully planned effort that includes the participation of key retailers and third-party publishers, Microsoft Corp. today unveiled its plans for a North American price reduction of the Xbox. Effective immediately, Xbox will have an estimated retail price of $199.99 in the United States ($299.99 CAN). The price reduction will be supported by a multimillion dollar national merchandising and marketing campaign set to begin this weekend. Microsoft also announced it is reducing the price of Xbox in Japan to 24,800 yen effective Wednesday, May 22.

FilePlanet is now mirroring the official Xbox trailer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. See the beautiful graphics, landscapes, and environments as the movie runs through actual game footage of this awesome title. Since fileplanet's is a whopping 40mb we compressed their version down to 20mb (divx format). Read more for links where to grab it!

Codemasters will reveal the breathtaking world of Dragon Empires for the first time at E3 and it marks the next generation of MMORPGs. The game’s genre-leading landscaping and character graphics engine will be seen for the first time at E3, The engine creates visuals that makes Dragon Empires a world begging to be explored.

TDK Mediactive, Inc. announced today that a five-year worldwide licensing agreement has been forged with the Chevrolet division of General Motors Corporation. Under the agreement, TDK Mediactive now has publishing and distribution rights for interactive video games based on the Chevrolet license, specifically dedicated to the Corvette 50th Anniversary.

Square and Disney Interactive today announced the all-star voice cast for KINGDOM HEARTS, the 3D action role-playing game for the PS2.

Lucasarts opened the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic website. Their role playing game (RPG), Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, will debut on the Xbox this fall and release on PC early 2003. Developed by BioWare Corp., the dramatic game features an original story set some 4,000 years prior to the timeframe of the Star Wars films in an era dominated by an epic conflict between the Jedi and the evil Sith. The site has a small Q&A and some screens, which we mirror'd here .. check them out ...

GameSpot put up a Q&A with Blizzard's Bill Roper discussing the single player campaign in their upcoming 3D RTS title, Warcraft III. Its Action Vault's turn to put a "one question-many answers" Q&A with members of Raven Software each giving their thoughts why their FPS Soldier of Fortune 2 ( just went gold) will be different from other shooters. RPGVault put up a Q&A with Sony Online's Rich Vogel, the executive producer of their upcoming massively multiplayer RPG Star Wars Galaxies. Computer and Video Games put up a Q&A with Red Storm producer Deke Waters talking about their tactical shooter The Sum of All Fears (expected end of May). HomeLAN chats with Object Software's Liu Yu Bin as he talks about Prince Of Qin, their upcoming action-RPG set in ancient China that will be published in the US by Strategy First.

BluesNews lets us know that Eidos UK has released a movie trailer of Praetorians for download from its ftp server, showing off the 3D real-time strategy game under construction at Pyro Studios. The movie comes as a modest 6.4 MB download in MPEG format and offers a minute of CGI and gameplay footage to introduce the game's Romanic setting. Read more for links where to get the goodies