XBox to launch 'Cricket 2007'

Video game lovers have a busy summer ahead with Microsoft XBox 360 preparing to launch a slew of games in the next couple of months starting with 'Yuvraj Singh International Cricket 2007' on March 27.

Soon after, it would launch newer version of Need for Speed, Spiderman III, Halo, FIFA'08 and others.  "Cricket is the religion of India and the Yuvraj Singh International Cricket 2007 will be the official game for the ICC World Cup," Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division Mohit Anand said.

As part of the pre-launch, Bollywood actor and XBox brand ambassador Akshay Kumar unveiled the new game at Gateway of India.

When asked why the game was being launched in the middle of World Cup series and not early, Anand said, "The launch was delayed as the various countries had not finalised their teams. Also, it had to be sent to ICC for approval."

"The game has a lot of localisation to suite the Indian gamers and it will have a real-life experience of cricket," he added.  The game, priced at Rs 1,699 will be on shelf from March 27 at about 1000 retailers in 40 cities.

Further in summer, the company has plans to unveil a large number of games including Spiderman III with the launch of the movie in April, new version for Need for Speed, Halo, Harry Potter and Order of Phoenix in June among several others.

"We have a long list of games, which we are planning to launch and just like the Yuvraj Singh International Cricket we could focus on contextual localisation in them," he said.