Video consoles battling for hearts, minds and złotys of young gamers

Paweł Kwapisz, a 10-year-old Warsaw school boy and a games console enthusiast, isn't too impressed with May 3's launch of the Nintendo GameCube. His favorite is still Sony's PlayStation 2. And the same goes for his friends, he said. "All my friends have PlayStation and they don't want anything else," Kwapisz said. "But they might be interested in the Nintendo GameCube if it's cheaper, as some of my friends can't afford consoles." But for now the Nintendo launch has failed to cause a storm in his classroom. Paweł is equally unexcited about Microsoft's Xbox games console, yet to debut in Poland. Although he has heard about it he doesn't think it will offer a better variety of games or will ever be as compatible with what his friends have, and he reckons it will be more expensive.

Console manufacturers are hoping more Polish youths, like Paweł, will take notice and buy their products. But the companies are following different strategies to attract them. The GameCube has a recommended selling price of zł. 949 compared to zł. 1,499 for the PlayStation 2 - a specific market ploy by Nintendo to make an impact. "Although the Playstation 2 is certainly our competitor, it comes with a DVD, whereas the GameCube is just for games and for that price there is no equivalent on the market that provides the same quality graphics and games," said Miłosz Sobiecki, Nintendo's marketing manager for Poland. Unlike Microsoft's Xbox, which has yet to debut in Central and Eastern Europe despite a March launch in Western Europe, the Nintendo GameCube chose May 3 for a complete Europe-wide premiere. In Poland this clashed with Constitution Day but debuts went ahead in whatever stores remained open. "The majority of sales were pre-ordered ones but sales have so far been good," Sobiecki said. "We have sold 30% of the first order, one-third of that in the first couple of days, and we expect we could run out of stock by the end of May, ahead of our next delivery in June."

But GameCube's launch has not daunted Sony Poland's expectations for PlayStation 2 this year. "The GameCube is not a direct competitor to PlayStation 2," said Anna Horczyczak, Sony Poland's spokeswoman. "We expect that within the next few months, the volume of sales of PlayStation 2 will be sustained at a high level because of the launch of many new popular and long-expected games." Xbox is Microsoft's first venture into gaming territory. The console's slow launch in Eastern Europe and its shaky welcome elsewhere means that rather than forcing competition to a head in Poland, a clear disparity has emerged between the three gaming heavyweights. Microsoft's spokesman, Michał Gołębiewski, said that inadequate broadband Internet access and huge software piracy problems were the main reasons for the decision not to launch in Poland and other countries. "For now there are no plans for a launch as we are having to analyze the market," Gołębiewski said. "First, the Xbox is not just a games console, it's a platform for allowing you to play games with your friends via the Internet, so we need complete Internet infrastructure before we launch. The other main reason is the piracy rate - to make a profit on Xbox you have to sell a console with some games, selling only the console isn't profitable." Business software piracy in Poland has dropped from 70% to 54% in the past three years, according to Microsoft, boding well for an Xbox launch at some point. But Gołębiewski said the launch is unlikely before the end of the year. "We see lots of opportunity in the Polish market but it's possible that we'll go straight into the launch of the next version of Xbox," Gołębiewski said. Until then, Polish Xbox fans will have to make the effort of importing the console from abroad.