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PROUDXBOXOWNER
04-20-2002, 02:42 PM
Microsoft chief financial officer John Connors announced in a conference call today that his company expects to sell only 3.5 to 4 million Xbox systems worldwide in the 2002 fiscal year, down from previous predictions of 4.5 to 6 million consoles. This new forecast follows similar predictions from financial analysts in recent weeks.
The forecast reduction is the result of lackluster sales in Japan and Europe, where Microsoft was expecting two thirds of all Xbox sales to come from. Japanese sales have plummeted to several thousand systems a week, below the PS one and Dreamcast, and sales in Europe have lagged due to a retail price pegged significantly above the competition.

The company behind the Xbox cut the European and Australian price of the Xbox nearly 40 percent yesterday to approximately $275, putting it in line with Sony's PlayStation 2. No price slashing is expected in Japan or America, but Microsoft may be forced to lower their system's price if Sony follows through on a rumored U.S. PS2 price cut. "[Sony's] historically made big hardware pricing announcements at E3," said industry analyst P.J. McNealy. "I think they're acting a little more defensively than they did a year ago."