Even as Microsoft has finally gone on to announce a release date for its Xbox One console, some retailers in Europe have started listing console bundles that are yet to be announced officially. First things first though; the next-gen beast is supposed to land in stores on November 22 in the thirteen markets allocated earlier. For North America, this date is later than that of the PS4 which arrives there on November 15, while for Europe it’s earlier as Sony’s console won’t make it there before November 29.
The thirteen launch countries which Microsoft has demarcated include Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the UK and US. Other nations won’t see it land in their markets until 2014. They can however import it through these countries since there are no region locks on the Xbox One. The price for the console has been kept locked at 499 USD (approx. Rs 32,980) in North America, 499 Euros (approx. Rs 43,440) in Europe and 429 GBP (approx. Rs 44,250) in the UK. Reduce 100 units from all three amounts, and those are the prices of the PS4.
Coming to the bundles now; these are quite surprising introductions considering the whole fiasco circling the FIFA 14 bundles being exclusive to Day One Editions. What are Day One Editions you ask? These are limited sets of the Xbox One console which come with special branding on the controller and an achievement code. While it was earlier announced that all European pre-orders of the Xbox One will net in a copy of FIFA 14, Microsoft did one more of its famous reversals by announcing the offer is limited only to Day One Editions.
The point of the matter is that a number of UK retailers have started taking pre-orders for Day One bundles that include copies of Forza 5, Dead Rising, Battlefield 4 as well as Gold subscriptions. We’re still to hear anything official from Microsoft on these new Xbox One bundles, but we’ll update this post if or when we do.