Microsoft says the first of its long-anticipated Xbox games consoles will hit US and Japanese stores on November 8th.
But the Xbox won't be available to UK games players until early 2002.
Microsoft has also announced agreements with games developers Sega Corp, which will make Xbox versions of its Sega Sports 2K2 games.
The console was unveiled in Tokyo last October and is claimed to have three dimensional graphics and connection to high-speed internet services that will allow users to take part in multiplayer games as well as connect to the Web and exchange e-mail.
Microsoft hopes the Xbox will enable it to challenge the huge market share of Sony's PlayStation consoles.
The console hopes to benefit from the familiarity of its coding language, which is based on the Windows operating system.
It's expected to cost around £209 sterling.