Gamers in Japan, Korea, Sweden and 23 other countries will get to experience the Xbox One as Microsoft confirmed today it will expand distribution starting in September.
The company said the new countries are:
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The Xbox One launched on Nov. 22, 2013 when it became available in 13 major markets, but this is the first major distribution expansion reported by Microsoft. The company did not give out any details, but it did say more information would come about the local launches next month.
The Xbox One has been on a roll this month. It was the game console launch partner for Electronic Arts massively popular Titanfall and the gaming system was the top revenue earner for February according to NPD.
This was reflected in Microsoft's comments regarding the new markets. The company noted that users are spending an average of over five hours per day on their Xbox. Post Titanfall drop Microsoft's Xbox Live community also lit up with the company saying the week of March 10 saw a record for the number of hours logged onto the system.
As an extra benefit to its dedicated Xbox Live players Microsoft plans to increase the number of gamers involved in its preview program. The company said early previews for the following features will start to show up in some game systems.
- Game and app saves and updates. A game save progress bar will show you the status of your game saves. You will also be able to easily tell what games and apps are being updated or have been updated recently.
- Friends improvements. Notifications will be added to see when favorites and friends sign in to Xbox Live. This actually was one of the most frequently requested features from the first preview wave and we made it a priority to include it in the April update. Also, friends who are in multiplayer will be identified in the friends list. We'll also add the ability to view friends' most popular apps.
- Kinect voice and motion improvements will continue to fine tune the quality and reliability of Xbox One commands.
- Improved GameDVR video quality through compression algorithm improvements.
The company also noted that it appreciates and takes into consideration all the user feedback that has been received, particularly those concerning external hard drive storage are on the company's list for further review.
