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Week of February 17, 2002
Xbox Launched In Japan !! (first pictures!)
>> Amid streaming green ribbons and cheers from the crowd, Xbox went on sale Friday in Japan. A long line snaked around a store in downtown Tokyo ahead of a countdown event at which a Japanese rock star played an Xbox car-racing game with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates.
University student Daisuke Nakamura, who was among the first to buy the 34,800 yen (dlrs 260) Xbox, asked Gates for his autograph when he was handed his machine.
"This is worth it," Nakamura said, clutching a bag with the Xbox inside. "I wanted to see Bill Gates. He's so rich."
MS are confident about the appeal of the machine, which targets hard-core game fans with its superior graphics and built-in hard drive and Internet capability. More than 1.5 million Xbox machines have been sold in the United States since they arrived in stores in November.
Gates played down the domination of Sony and Nintendo and pushed the Xbox as the "new leader."
"These people here today are the pioneers," he said at the countdown ceremony at the Tsutaya video store in Tokyo's Shibuya district. "Thanks so much for joining us this morning as we kick off the next generation in video gaming."
Microsoft is not saying how many of the Xbox machines it wants to sell in Japan. Gates said only that the company has prepared 250,000 machines in the first shipment and is ready to send in more.
Analysts warn that the Xbox should be expected to start slowly, given the dominance of the 29,800 yen (dlrs 220) Sony PlayStation2, which nearly 9 million Japanese already own.
Many of the youngsters lining up to buy the Xbox already owned a PlayStation2. But they said they still wanted the Xbox, too.
To woo Japanese, who tend to be shorter than Westerners, the American software giant has designed smaller hand-held controllers.
Microsoft also is selling a special-edition translucent Xbox that comes with a silver-plated key chain with Gates' engraved autograph.
It remains to be seen whether the Xbox will go the way of American brands that have met huge success in Japan like Coca-Cola, Disneyland and Starbucks or end up a big flop like Ford cars and U.S.-grown rice.
Worldwide, Sony Computer Entertainment has shipped more than 26 million PlayStation2 machines. Nintendo says 2.7 million GameCube consoles have been shipped worldwide, about half of those in Japan. The GameCube sells here for 25,000 yen (dlrs 190).
The decisive factor in the three-way war, analysts say, is the lineup of games. Attracting hit games preferably exclusive ones is crucial.
Yukie Saito, an analyst with Lehman Brothers in Tokyo, believes the Xbox doesn't have enough strong games yet to convince Japanese to buy it.
"If the games aren't attractive, people are going to wonder why they should bother buying it," Saito said.
About 100,000 Xbox machines should sell in the first week, with sales reaching 200,000 or 300,000 by May, she said.
That would be about only about a fifth of the sales that the console chalked up in its first few months in U.S. stores.
Going on sale Friday with the Xbox are 12 game titles, including "Dead or Alive 3" from Tecmo, Konami's "Silent Hill 2," and "Nezmix," "Project Gotham: World Street Racer," and "Tenku Freestyle Snowboarding" from Microsoft.
PlayStation2, on sale for nearly two years, boasts a lineup of 400 games in Japan. The machine can also play the more than 3,900 games out for the original PlayStation. Nintendo's GameCube has 13 games out so far. It went on sale in September in Japan and two months later in the United States.
Game fans say the powerful Xbox has an edge over the rivals in online games. While plans for broadband network services were still undecided, they will be announced in the months ahead at the same time in Japan and the United States, Gates said.
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(Friday 22 February 2002 16:17 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
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Confirmed! , the Jap controller will work on US consoles.
>> Despite reports from NCS, the Japanese Xbox controller will work with an American Xbox. Those of us who have griped about the Xbox controller being too big, will finally be able to get their hands on a comfortable controller. It's unclear whether the Japanese controller will be marketed in America or if you'll have to import it. We'll follow up on this shortly and let you know Microsoft's plans as well as what you can expect to pay for a Japanese controller.
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(Friday 22 February 2002 00:52 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
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Incompatible Controllers?
>> NCSX reported :
Sources from Microsoft's X-Box division and independent developers sent a number of e-mails to NCS yesterday after we posted our little FAQ. Unfortunately, Microsoft appears to have mandated that USA X-Box software titles not recognize any controllers from other territories. Japanese controllers won't work with USA X-Box software.
This policy apparently extends from joypads to future joysticks from the usual suspects such as ASCII and Hori. When and if ASCII manufactures a Fighting Type pad/stick for the Japanese X-Box market, USA gamers won't be able to share in the love. There you have it. The first console to ever completely lock out import controllers. Bravo...
* Addendum at 02:28PM EST *
A lot of e-mails have poured in from other sources and developers these past few hours. A call from an Microsoft employee also came in. The Japanese X-Box joypad should work with USA consoles. We'll confirm this tonight once our suppliers test the joypad with some USA games we shipped them earlier this week. If all is well, then our shipments of Japanese X-Box joypads won't go to waste after all.
let's hope it's just a hoax ...
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(Thursday 21 February 2002 01:40 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
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Watercooled Xbox !
>> [H]ardocpc made a watercooled Xbox.
Their conclusion:
Right now, the primary goals of this modification were to A.) See if it could be done. B.) Better overall cooling C.) See if it could be done. D.) make and extreme modification without permanently altering the Xbox console E.) See if it could be done F.) Having a finished product that had a professional look and feel to it. G.) and of course...to see if it could be done!!!!
We consider this a success since all objectives were completed and the finished product is an ASS KICKIN' WORLD'S FIRST Water-cooled Xbox. I'd say that was a success.
....But, what fun would all this cooling be if we didn't attempt to overclock the stock Xbox and take advantage of our new cooling system?? What about adding another 64mb of video memory to our Xbox?? Keep in mind, this time around we are covering things that will not permanently alter your system. All the other "warranty voiding" things that can be done to our water-cooled Xbox including adding a waterblock to the graphics processor, will be done in a future article. This is just the beginning...
Read the full article here.
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(Wednesday 20 February 2002 15:46 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
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Xbox Japan : minus 2days
>> Microsoft will launch its Xbox video game system in Japan on Friday. The Xbox sells for 34,800 yen ($262 with US $1= 132.68 ₯en), 5,000 yen more than the PlayStation 2 and 9,800 yen more than Nintendo's GameCube. But to match Xbox's built-in features the PlayStation 2 requires a 18,000 yen add-on kit for a 40-gigabyte hard drive and an Ethernet port. There's also a 50,000 Xbox Special Edition model, which will be available to commemorate the launch in Japan. In addition to the standard AV adapter and the HDTV and Dolby Digital 5.1 compatible expansion AV pack, a silver-plated key chain, signed by Bill Gates will be included in the package. The Xbox Special Edition will be available for an estimated retail price of 39,800 yen.
Xbox Experience@Shibuya
Called the "Xbox Experience", the first event took place in the famous Akiba district and helped Microsoft get the Xbox word out among 15,000 Japanese gamers. Attendees at the festival were able to get a general feel of the console and the controller while playing the Xbox 12 launch titles.
The second Xbox Experience is taking place at Shibuya, running for three days, from February 19 through Feb 21.
Amazon Preorders
Amazon.co.jp, the Japanese unit of Amazon.com Inc, said its initial pre-order allotment of Xbox machines sold out within a day. A spokeswoman at Amazon.com said demand was "more than expected" and that the most popular games at the Web retailer were "Dead or Alive 3," "Project Gotham Racing" and "Jet Set Radio Future." The Xbox is selling very well in Japan, and is second in the Amazon Japan TOP 100 chart of videogames category.
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(Wednesday 20 February 2002 15:40 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
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Lik-Sang Shipments Banned
>> U.S. Customs officials have blocked shipments from one of the largest online video game retailers, hoping to stop the import of products that may run afoul of federal copyright protections.
The agency was trying to stop the import of NEO4s , a chip that allows PlayStation consoles to run DVDs with geographic encryptions and games copied on to CD-ROMs, according to sources familiar with the video game company, Lik-Sang.
These chips, called "mods," have come under scrutiny by corporations claiming the technology violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which restricts anyone's ability to circumvent copy protections.
The company claims it pulled the product when the controversy arose, but those claims have so far fallen on deaf ears.
Customs agents are using the UPS computer system to track packages from origination points, UPS spokesman Dan McMackin said.
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(Wednesday 20 February 2002 15:36 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
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Serial EEPROM
>> Bunnie has updated his page with info on the serial EEPROM:
"There is a 256, maybe 128 byte EEPROM on the XBOX which stores, among other things, your serial number, time zone settings, MAC address, and there is some speculation that hard drive keys and encryption keys are stored there as well. The EEPROM is located on the motherboard below the PIC. The EEPROM is a 24C02-style device (runs on Vcc = 3.3V), and it's I2C address code is 0xA8 (that's already shifted left to compensate for the LSB r/w bit, the "real" device code is 0x54). Using an Opencores wishbone-compliant I2C interface by Richard Herveille and my flashburn rev 2 board, I managed to snarf the contents out. (getting the core to compile to my Xilinx Spartan FPGA sucked, btw. Lots of hairy issues with the use of a tristate-buffer with input tied to zero to do wired-OR bus signalling and an overzealous synthesis optimizer :P) I made an ugly little jig for the EEPROM on the back of the fb2 board using a spare "magic" connector I had sitting around."
Check out Bunnies Website
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(Monday 18 February 2002 02:35 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
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HomeStation Denied
>> Microsoft Corp. on Friday denied it is building the ``HomeStation'', a rumored living room entertainment hub industry watchers have speculated could combine the software giant's Xbox video game console with digital video, music and Internet functions.
HomeStation rumors were sparked last September by a report in PC Format magazine that such a device would cross the Xbox with a PC and boast a bigger hard drive, audio and video technology and a wireless connection.
HomeStation talk resurfaced earlier in January as one analyst said he could confirm the existence of the machine in Microsoft and that it could debut later this year.
``This reared its head several weeks ago. The odd thing is there is no thing called the HomeStation product or initiative,'' Microsoft spokeswoman Erin Brewer said.
Microsoft was interested in ``some of the longer-term ideas, but there's no product called that,'' Brewer said.
Talk that Microsoft could beef up the Xbox with music, movies, TV recording, e-mail and instant message capabilities has abounded since the company announced the product in 2000. The Xbox went on sale last November in the United States.
Company executives have admitted that the Xbox, with its PC-like design using an Intel Corp. processor, Nvidia graphics chip, 8-gigabyte hard drive and fast Internet jack, is capable of doing more than just play games, but have insisted they are just focusing on games.
However, last November, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told an analyst conference there was a ``bigger play'' than video games the company hoped to eventually achieve with the Xbox.
Microsoft was exploring lots of possibilities in the areas of interactive television and PC-based digital entertainment, Brewer said, adding some of those ideas could eventually make their way into the Xbox.
``In the longer term do we have plans like that, but there's nothing concrete in the works yet,'' Brewer said.
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(Sunday 17 February 2002 12:04 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
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Microsoft must give Windows source code ;)
>> Nine state attorneys general had argued that they needed to see the Windows source code in order to verify Microsoft's claim it could not offer a simpler version of the Windows personal computer operating system, stripped of features like the Internet Explorer browser.
"It seems to me that if your side has access to it, then the other side, frankly, should have access to it," United States District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly told Microsoft's lawyers in a conference call with attorneys from both sides.
Hahaha ... too bad for ya Mr. Gates ;)
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(Sunday 17 February 2002 02:59 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
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