Microsoft to Stagger Launch of Game Console

Hoping to avoid the production problems that plagued Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 2, video game consoles, Microsoft Corp. said it will stagger the launch of its Xbox game console. The Redmond, Wash., software giant said it will distribute the Xbox in North America and Japan in the fall of 2001 and wait until the spring of 2002 to begin selling the console in Europe. Sony ran into manufacturing delays this fall, causing it to ship just half of the consoles it had originally projected. Microsoft said its manufacturing partner, Flextronics Inc., will start producing the Xbox in late spring or early summer, at plants in Mexico and Hungary.