Xbox
"With this new pricing, even more European gamers, casual and otherwise, will be able to enjoy Xbox this Christmas," said Eduardo Rosini, regional vice president for Xbox EMEA. "We have some fantastic games on the way – the innovative Fable, the debut of Electronic Arts' games on Xbox® LiveTM, and of course the hottest game this Christmas on any platform, Halo 2. With the strongest Christmas games portfolio of any console, Xbox is now also the best value console on the market. It's a winning combination for gamers this Christmas, and even more people in Europe will discover why it's good to play together with Xbox."
Xbox continues to go from strength to strength, with cumulative worldwide shipments of 15.5 million consoles since launch and a worldwide shipment goal of more than 20 million units by the end of June 2005. The groundbreaking Xbox Live service now has a membership surpassing the one million member mark and is expected to expand to an excess of 1.5 million members by the end of June 2005, representing 50%+ growth.
Xbox has a number of hot titles coming out this Christmas and beyond including such first party games as Halo 2, Forza Motorsports and Fable, and third party games such as Xbox exclusives Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 from Activision, Outrun 2 from Sega, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory from UbiSoft, and Doom 3 from Activision, not to mention the premiere of FIFA Football 2005 from Electronic Arts on Xbox Live.
PLAYSTATION 2
Since the launch in November 2000, PlayStation 2 has reached a consumer installed base of nearly 24 million units in the PAL territories. This reduction in price will launch a renewed phase of growth for PlayStation 2, as well as providing a significant boost to the sales of games titles for the world's leading games console.
Commenting on the price change, David Reeves, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, said, "PlayStation 2 has enjoyed phenomenal success, and the time has now come to go well beyond our 24 million PlayStation 2 owners. There are already over 1,000 games titles available, and many more new ones like Gran Turismo 4, The Getaway: Black Monday, Singstar Party, EyeToyTM Play 2 and Killzone, all to be published by SCEE, and titles such as GTA San Andreas from Take 2, Burnout 3: Takedown from Electronic Arts and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater from Konami still to come this year.
This new price point of £104.99, together with this incredible line up of titles, will make it both affordable and exciting for everybody to enjoy the fun of PlayStation gaming, and will ensure that PlayStation 2 continues to be the computer entertainment system of choice for an ever widening and diversifying audience."