Bill Gates has unveiled Microsoft's forthcoming Xbox game console which is scheduled to launch in Europe early next year. Microsoft claims that the performance from its 733Mhz processor and 250Mhz custom-built nVidia graphics processor is three times that of Sony's PlayStation 2.

The software giant has admitted that the 125 million polygon-per-second performance is half that originally announced and 'only' twice that cited for the PS2.

X-box general manager J Allard was quoted as saying that what mattered was the gaming experience, and that he was confident that this would be three times better than the Sony rival.

The X-box, like the PlayStation 2, will have a DVD drive but this will be available only for gaming out of the box. You will need to buy a special remote control, costing around £20, to unlock the device as a movie player. This is apparently to avoid licensing fees on the main product.

Gates unveiled the machine at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, claiming that "X-box will set the standard in gaming for years to come".