"This holiday season sees the debut of one of the eagerly awaited next generation gaming consoles, Microsoft's Xbox. And the Redmond, Washington-based Company is doing everything it can to see that it steals a march over rivals Sony and Nintendo, whose respective consoles will only be launched next year.

Microsoft's chief Xbox officer Robbie Bach was bullish about the prospects of the Xbox 360 and has thrown the gauntlet to Sony to name the day and time that the PlayStation 3 would be launched, "What I say is, whenever they launch, I'm ready. They should just tell me which market, what date, and I'm happy to be there - and we'll already be in that market, it turns out," Bach said at the X05 event in Amsterdam earlier this week.

He seized upon Sony's reluctance to set a clear timeframe for the PS 3's launch. Bach was emphatic that the Xbox can compete at each level with the PlayStation 3, "I think the reality will be that a game on Xbox 360 and a game on PS3, that's cross-platform, the power that they're going to get from the PS3 and the power that they're going to get from the Xbox 360 are going to be about the same," he observed.

Meanwhile, games manufacturers are getting ready with their own titles for Xbox 360. Electronic Arts Inc has penciled in five titles including the "Need for Speed Most Wanted," its "FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup" soccer title, basketball game "NBA Live 06," golf game "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06" and "Madden NFL 06."

THQ Inc has committed two titles "Saint's Row" and "The Outfit," a World War II-inspired game for the console, while Blizzard Creations "Project Gotham Racing 3" is also on the cards. IGN's "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" would also hit the stores during the same time." [link]