Alex Croft, Head of Buying for GAME Stores Group Ltd said “The price reduction of the five catalogue titles by Microsoft shows that they are willing to act in order to stimulate sales with price activity.”

“In preparation for making it a great summer for gamers and retailers, we’re introducing special prices for these top games,” said Sandy Duncan, Vice President, Xbox Europe. “These titles have done very well for us, and all have appeared in and around the top-ten Xbox sales charts. We have also received an overwhelming response to these games through reviews and awards, proving that both the industry and consumers love Xbox and its games portfolio.

“We’ve delivered value to hundreds of thousands of happy consumers in Europe with our recent console price reduction,” said Duncan. “With Xbox sales of over 500,000 units in Europe, we will continue that cycle of success with this new price point for Dead or Alive 3, Project Gotham Racing, Azurik, Nightcaster and NBA Inside Drive 2002. We want to make sure that we’re widening the audience for Xbox by allowing even more gamers to experience these great titles.”

Now available in Europe for an estimated street price of €299/£199, the award-winning Xbox is the most powerful video game system on earth. With 40 games currently available and more than 150 to be available by Christmas, Xbox is the only video games console designed for the future of gaming with a built-in hard drive and broadband adapter.

Xbox is building a large user base in Europe - it’s neck-and-neck with Sony’s PlayStation 2 in terms of weekly sales and recently hit the half-million sales mark in Europe. The continued success of Xbox hardware sales is matched by the software attach rate, demonstrating that European gamers are appreciating depth, breadth, and quality of the Xbox games portfolio - 3.1 games were sold for each Xbox console in the UK.