Some of the 250,000 consoles shipped in Japan make scratches on the perimeter of a game disk, said Microsoft Co., the Japanese unit of the world's biggest software maker.

Customers need to send the console back to Microsoft for repair; the process of replacing the disc drive will take a week to ten days to complete.

Microsoft has got 200.000 new drives ready for the Xbox. That means that they are expecting to have almost all the Xbox's returned sold in Japan.

The recall comes a week before the console's debut in Europe on March 14. Maybe it is time to think over the European release date for the XBox (and let nintendo conquer Europe!). They have got a lot of repairing to do...

SOURCE: BLOOMBERG