Xbox One launch date announced

Microsoft’s Xbox One is set to launch on 22 November, a week ahead of rival Sony’s Playstation 4.

The company’s latest console, whose pre-orders sold out faster than any of Microsoft’s previous gaming products, will be available in 13 countries across the globe, including the UK, US, Germany, France, Australia and New Zealand.

The news was announced in a statement from Xbox’s marketing vice president, Yusuf Mehdi, who said that there is still a lot more work to do, but the teams are making ‘excellent progress’ and are focused on the launch.

Mehdi also confirmed that the console’s CPU had been upgraded by approximately 10%.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it will be partnering with Steven Spielberg for a live ‘Halo’ TV series to run on the Xbox One s part of Microsoft’s move to invest in original programming.