Officials from Microsoft have announced that the Xbox 360 game console will launch in Asian markets (not including Japan) by early spring of next year, with the South Korean launch due to take place first on February 24th.

The Xbox 360 is due to launch in Japan on December 10th, with the European launch already having taken place last Friday and the North American launch on November 22nd. The only other announced launch until now was the Australian debut, set for March 2nd, which will also now be the launch date for Taiwan and Singapore.

Quoted by Reuters, regional Xbox head Alan Bowman stated that the company had decided not to delay launches in other Asian market in order to meet demand in the rest of the world first. "Believe me, that conversation happened," he said. "We wanted to make sure within the first six months that we could get the 360 into all existing Xbox 1 markets. I'm very optimistic that demand is going to be significant. We're working very hard to keep supply up with demand.”

No decision has yet been made on pricing for the non-Japanese Asian markets, although these were described as being in line with North American and Europe. It is unclear whether the console will be sold in two versions or whether there will be only one version, with a hard drive, as is the case in Japan.