Microsoft 360 Launch Seen On Track

Piper Jaffray said the launch of Microsoft's Xbox 360 is on track to launch in November in the U.S. and Europe, and will likely ship "a couple of weeks later" in Japan.

Microsoft management wouldn't provide launch quantities, but the research firm estimates that 1 million units will ship in the U.S., 400,000 in Europe, and 200,000 units in Japan by the end of 2005.

Piper Jaffray expects 15 games to be available at the console's launch and 25 to 40 games before the end of the year. The research firm noted that there are more than 160 Xbox 360 games in development worldwide.

Microsoft also would not provide specific pricing information about the Xbox 360, but Piper Jaffray expects Microsoft will make one unit available at $299, and another unit near $399, with the more expensive unit including "additional hardware components (e.g., hard-drive option, extra controller, memory option) that core users will likely buy anyway."