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'Q' Plays US GameCube Games
Bodero writes: "Lik-Sang is reporting that Panasonic's 'Q', the Japan-only GameCube/DVD Hybrid, can be modded to play US GameCube games much in the same way that the Japanese GameCube can be. This does not, however, allow it to play region one DVDs as of yet, but keep your eyes out. It's a shame Panasonic chose not to release it to North American store shelves, but the import will soon work just as well."
Why is it Japan keeps getting these cool Japan only products? I mean, why sell a diffrent inferior version for the rest of the world? Doesn't it cost them more to R&D a diffrent U.S. product? Why not sell us the good stuff?
Panasonic is set to lose a _lot_ of money after these new developments. Is there any real point in only releasing it in one place only for it to be ripped apart and distributed abroad when they could make their own profit if they played their cards right?
then whoever puts out information on how to mod it out, or anyone who sells mod chips of any kind will get sued! :-(
Derek Greene
Then M probably plays PSII games.
Which means 007 himself must be left with the x-box. Ouch.
The reason is simple, marketing. Advertising and promoting a product costs alot. If products were released in NA and Japan at the same time, that would mean twice the marketing budget for a product that hasn't proven itself yet. By doing a release in Japan first, they can do to things: 1) They make sure the product is cost feasable enough to market in the US, and 2) They can use the revenues coming in off of the Japanese sales to drive the US marketing effort, which is guarenteed to be much more expensive.
Another reason alot of stuff isn't released in the US is because marketing studies (and common logic) dictate alot of stuff thats succesfull in the techno-gadget culture of Japan isn't as successfull this side of the Pacific. Don't forget, the /. , gadget buying crowd is in a vast majority over here, but not so over there. Everyone and their dog has a cell-phone-PDA-GPS-wearable-pc-doohicky!
Why do companies play these games?
Easy - to test markets. Internationalizing a product, even if it is only translation of manuals and text is surprisingly expensive. That doesn't even begin to consider research into cultural differences - know what "nova" in Spanish means? It didn't do Chevrolet any good using that name in South America. Or there's the Coca Cola name in China.
The rest of the world (and you probably mean the USA) is a huge market but what works in Europe or Japan isn't necessarily going to work here, just look at the huge market for video-capable cell phones in Japan and compare the screens we live with. If it is a huge success then you can be sure we'll get the product, when it looks like US sales will show a profit.
Oh wait, I thought you meant this guy.
You'd think he'd have better things to do, like bug Jean-Luc.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
Nah. The fact that "nova" is not the same as "No va!" doesn't really matter. Let's say your surname is Hunt - are you really going to call your son Mike?
Does this modification work for european games, too?
This would be interesting, because Europe and Japan share the same DVD-Regioncode (RC2). So, while this won't help american players much, it might be very interesting fo european ones.
If anyone is lazy enough to not read the article, here is a link that should of been posted in the blurb [pictures of the Q's guts]:
= Opened+Q&inc=qmod.inc
http://www.lik-sang.com/catalog/master.php?navbar
Take a look at this link to a Panasonic sweepstakes where they are giving away actual Nintendo Gamecube units with an additional TV/VCR/DVD Combo unit. Why aren't they promoting their own 'Q' units, which combined this technology into one unit?
Really, I don't think a DVD player is really a
selling feature of a console for most people.
Sure, the DVD playback feature on my Playstation 2
is nice. I suppose that on a system the size of the Game Cube, DVD player capability coupled with a portable screen like Interact would make a good system for a road trip.
However, my consoles are in the living room. In my place there are 5 different machines capable of playing DVDs. After a while, the DVD feature isn't a big deal.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Short answer: Nintendo fears american warez kiddies.
Long answer: Most of the copy protection surrounding the Gamecube revolves around its 3 inch DVDs. The reason Nintendo picked an odd (but still standard) is the complete lack of blanks at that size. This will, for a little while at least, keep the Gamecube from having games copied, as DVD-R blanks won't fit in the machine.
Now we have the Q, which is a Gamecube modified to play DVD movies. DVD movies come on 5 inch discs. There are blank DVDs that are 5 inches. What will inevitably happen if the Q is released here is that warez kiddies will copy 3 inch Gamecube discs onto 5 inch DVD blanks, and run them on a modchipped Q. The whole bet Nintendo is hedging is that 3 inch blank DVDs will not be available for a while, and when they are, they will be prohibitively expensive to keep piracy at a minimum for a few more years, which is the expected lifespan of the GC.
-Lx?
they won't release that version here because that means there is greater possibilty to pirate the games here. Japan, apparently, doesn't have quite the piracy problem that the US does.
Q is consist of 2 component, dvd player; and Nitendo GameCube. They are totally seperated. You need to select from the panel that you want the DVD function; or the GameCube function. ie. it won't detect what you have inserted. It kind of disappoint me..