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Xbox One won't arrive in Asia until late 2014, a full year after the console's November 2013 launch in select regions, Microsoft's Alan Bowman, regional vice president for sales and marketing in Asia, told the Wall Street Journal.
Only select, "high growth" markets in Asia would be supported when the console comes to the region, Bowman told the Wall Street Journal, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and India.
Alongside Bowman's announcement, Microsoft posted a disclaimer to its official site listing the countries which would have access to Xbox Live on Xbox One at the console's launch — assumedly the 21 markets the console will launch in this November. The disclaimer also carries a puzzling warning about the console's region-locking policies, which may be tied to its cloud-based online licensing DRM policy.
"Xbox One games are for activation and distribution only in specified geographic regions," the disclaimer reads. "See game package and/or retailer product information, for each game's specific geographic regions."
Regions which will support Xbox Live on Xbox One at launch include:
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Canada
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- Italy
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Russia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- United States
Notably, Japan is not mentioned either in this list or in Bowman's list of "high growth" Asian regions where the console will come late next year. Microsoft told Engadget that it "does plan to launch Xbox One, the ultimate new-generation all-in-one entertainment system, in Japan -- we look forward to confirming timing and other details at a later stage."
