According to a Bloomberg News story, Microsoft Corp. may put off the Japanese introduction of the Xbox game console until next year because few game software companies have signed on to support the system with local titles. As Japanese consumers have unique tastes in games, a launch without software tailored for the market would probably be unsuccessful. Some analysts say Microsoft erred by not lining up Japanese developers. More than a quarter of the $20 billion worldwide video-game market is Japanese.

The source article is at bloomberg.com.