The company has been criticised for failing to secure enough Japanese games developers and is now said to be facing a potential shortage of titles in a market said to have significantly different tastes from the US and Europe.
The company had said it hoped to launch the Xbox in the US and Japan in the second half of 2001 and in Europe in early 2002. An analyst told Bloomberg that he expects the company to launch the product only in the US this year.
The news of the delay will please Nintendo which hopes to launch its Gamecube in July this year. Japan is said to account for 25% – 30% of the games market.