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Xbox One release date announced: out 22 November in UK

Microsoft has announced the Xbox One will be on sale in the UK a week before Sony's PS4.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
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Joe Svetlik
2 min read

The Xbox One will go on sale in the UK on 22 November, Microsoft has announced. That's bang on a week before the PS4. Fight fight fight!

It'll be "the biggest launch of an Xbox ever" according to Microsoft's VP of Xbox marketing, strategy and business, Yusuf Mehdi. A limited run of 'Day One Edition' consoles will be up for pre-order, Mehdi confirmed. The console has also had a slight spec boost since we last heard of it.

22 November will be eight years to the day since the Xbox 360 launched in the US (though it didn't come to these shores until 2 December). On that day this year the Xbox One will also be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, and the USA, among others. It'll come to more countries in 2014.

Now, those specs. The CPU has been boosted from 1.6GHz to 1.75GHz. That's about a 10 per cent increase in processing power, which should help everything run smoothly. Microsoft also confirmed the console will be able to support eight controllers at once, for ridiculously busy multiplayer action. The PlayStation 3 supports seven controls, but the PS4 will drop that down to four, Sony Computer Entertainment's president of worldwide studios Shuhei Yoshida confirmed on Twitter. Presumably not many people were using the feature for Sony to drop it.

Demand for the Xbox One has gone through the roof, according to Microsoft. Since E3 earlier in the summer, pre-orders for the console have increased by 200 per cent in Europe. But it's still more expensive than the PS4. Sony's console costs just £349, compared to £429 for the Xbox One. That £80 could be a deal breaker for many.

Are you excited about the Xbox One? Or is the PS4 more your bag? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.