In a highly competitive move on its chief rival's home turf, Microsoft Corp. announced a deal Thursday with NTT Communications Corp. that will give users of Microsoft's Xbox an online gaming service over a Japanese broadband network.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant announced the deal in Japan the day before chairman Bill Gates is expected to deliver the keynote address at the Tokyo Games Show, in the same city where Sony Corp., the maker of PlayStation, is headquartered.
The Xbox online gaming service will not be launched, however, until 2002. The Xbox game console is slated for release in Japan and the United States in the fall and marks Microsoft's first foray into the game console business. Microsoft has said it plans to spend $500 million marketing the product.
Meanwhile, Sony, which leads the gaming console industry with more than 75 million PlayStation machines sold worldwide, also plans to provide online gaming for its PlayStation 2 users. Sony spokeswoman Molly Smith said a launch date has not been released but an online gaming service will be rolled out by the end of the year.
As for the Microsoft-NTT deal, Smith said it was premature for Sony to comment.
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