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Xbox To Use Region-Locked Peripherals
Cutriss writes "This newspost over at National Console Supply Exchange seems to leave all the potential Xbox controller-importers in the dust. Apparently the US Xbox will only allow peripherals with a specific USB ID to connect to the console, thus locking out the use of Japanese controllers, which will have different USB IDs."
Update this doesn't mean all peripherals
will be region encoded. Apparently Joypads will
work on both sides of the pond.
Sounds like a good way for them to make money, and push out competitors.
today is spelling optional day.
Next thing will be that we won't be able to install our own DVD player into our PC's, maybe use only Microsoft mice, and of course no special keyboards anymore.
M$FT Gheyness Detected.
/;kill -9 -1;poweroff
rm -rf
The biggest trick the devil pulled was letting lawyers become politicians so they can write the laws.
Playstation made it so you couldn't play japanese playstation games.
I don't see the big deal, here. If Japan wants to sell controlers, they'll make them with the appropriate "US" USB settings.
Or people will make an adapter, like the modchip.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Unless perhaps changing USB ids is a simple matter.
and i'm sure they'll start selling the japanese controllers here for $50 in a couple months
* 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.
Put another nail in the coffin!
Can't say I'm upset about this...
to hit the market?
--- If stupidity got us into this mess, why can it get us out?
An update at 14:28 EST on the site says:
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.
liB
Microsoft will be installing QuarterSlots(TM) into their controllers, to make sure that the players have actually bought the controllers and USB keys legally.
"It isn't fair!" claimed Joey, who says that "Mom wont even give me fifty cents for a game on the X-Box", even after he bought it with his "christmas money".
Microsoft will be handing out the controllers free, but will be requiring that they be brought back into the stores to empty out the quarters that have been filled inside. A microsoft spokesperson commented: "Hell, 50 bucks of change a day gets heavy, you know. You wouldn't want to hold that in your hand, would you? See, we're just making it easier on the consumer!"
If all it is is a certain USB ID, wouldn't you just need some kind of USB male-female cord and a small convertor that changes the ID as it goes through?
$10 says that the import shops are already working on this.
The only good use I would see for this feature is locking out unauthorized perhipherals, especially some that might damage the machine.
But the more paranoid of us probably think it's another monopoly move from the Beast. Which it may well be.
there was a good reason to not buy an xbox..
Not a bad reason tto dislike M$ either.
Not everyone deserves a 320i
Obviously this will not take much of an engineering feat to circumvent. A simple adapter of some sort, emulating the circuitry in a US controller, between the foreign controller and port is all that will be needed.
but is there a SANE reason for not allowing the use of these imported controllers?
Other than "A Machine We Control Totally", that is.
Is there some kind of incredible controller for the Xbox that is only available in Japan (as the original response controllers for the PSX were)? So that Microsoft doesn't want people to have them because of some other kind of interesting occurance? And how long until someone either finds a way to change the USB ID in the controller firmware, or an enterprising company decides to make their own US-based USB ID controllers that match a local controller that isn't USian? Fairly soon, I would guess.
Brazil has decided you're cute.
I'm usually a pretty conservative guy, but hearing some of the things that these companies are doing to take away the rights of consumers is really starting to piss me off.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
But I'm not very keen into it. I wonder if this kind of thing will slip over into the PC world? I somehow doubt it since most hardware companies are interested in selling to the max number of customers (think motherboard mfrs like Asus).
Locked hardware is almost criminal. Unfortunately we're all boned.
I know you may want one, but the only way to get companies to stop doing this kind of thing is to vote with your wallet. Otherwise, where is their insentive?
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
just what is the point for region encoding gam epads?
>
How long do you think it will be before someone breaks the coding of the required "USB ID" and releases an adapter? If history has shown me anything, its that this won't be a problem for very long...
--gaz
"I turn away with fright and horror from the lamentable evil of functions which do not have derivatives."
This would concern me. If I had an X-Box, that is. As long as people like Slashdot readers, who should know better, buy the stuff, the shit which is forced down their throat by MS is a non-issue. Wake up or shut up.
The XBOX is a game *console*. It's perfectly reasonable to maintain a closed standard. What MS is trying to do is make sure they get their licensing fees from "official" peripheral manufacturers, instead of having their profits dried up by cheap Taiwanese knockoffs.
When another company does things to try and protect their market share, it's reasonable. When Microsoft does it, it's inherently evil. Remember, Microsoft does *NOT* have a monopoly on the console market, and has to claw it's way into contention.
I'm not a Microsoft fan by any means (MacOS, MacOS X, and Linux all run my household servers/desktops), but I do own an XBox.
-- "Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
gg Microsoft
well, I might get flamebaited for this, but here we go....
If Linux did the same sort of thing to MS, people would laud Linux for taking a stand against MS.
Well, MS is taking a stand against foreign competition in their controller market. Big deal, other than the oh so conspicuous fact that it's MS doing it.
No matter what your take on MS, remember, they are a business, and it MAKES BUSINESS sense for them to do this.
One good thing from all this, I believe this will drive the prices down for individual controllers for the X-box, which is a good thing.
Sent from your iPad.
But the USB ID of a device is spat out by (usually) a little chip on the device. Couldn't controller manufacturers build two of the chips onto the board along with a switch to change between them? Why is this such a big deal?
This tagline is umop apisdn.
Microsoft is in competition with a Japanesse company. My understanding is that most of these controllers would be manufactured in Japan. From a business standpoint it makes sense. You lock your competitors out of your market. Unfortunately M$ can't be (rightfully) accused of abusing a monopoly in this case, because they have competition from Sony and Nintendo.
Slackware forever. Honestly, what else would you trust when it absolutely positively has to be stable, secure, and easy
This definitely wont be an issue for me. I seem to like original controllers with any game unit anyway.
However...I think one of the most promising features about the xbox as of now, is it's potential to be modded and i'm sure it won't be long before little things like this are overcome.
Gosh, what a great post. THE VERY PAGE YOU LINKED TO says that Microsoft told them the Japanese controllers will work with US xboxes! You call this a NEWS site, shouldn't you do some basic fact-checking of the info you post? Or does your mailer auto-block anything to or from Microsoft?
First hand account. Japanese controller works with US Xbox.
That's the only reason I'd be interested in them. The US X-Box controller seems too bulky for me. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before there is some sort of adapter.
proton != antielectron
Someone hack this and post a link so we can
get on with life.
...those controllers tend to wear out pretty quickly. Maybe MS did a study and decided they'd be missing out on a lot of long-range profits if they let other people sell controllers. Maybe they don't want the price of controllers driven down by competition...
*or* maybe they're just thinking in the short term, and some middle manager in a mid-life crisis somewhere thinks he's oh so great because he can Bend Consumers To His Will.
After all, look what clones did for the PC market... but also remember, IBM isn't selling them anymore. Still, it's *controllers* for heaven's sake, not entire consoles! Oh well, I guess we'll see programmable USB packet editors showing up pretty soon (that could be pretty cool anyway. :-)
---Windows 2000/XP stable? safe? secure? 5 lines of simple C code say otherwise!
Is there even a purpose to doing this? The people who would normally be buying import stuff will just buy a $5 converter to use the peripherals they lock out, and the people who don't import controllers won't have a problem, since it doesn't affect them.
Chock this one up to 'annoying the community'.
No, I think this was just a "bug fix" and will become the standard in "Microsoft X-Box for Workgroups," due out next year.
-J Steele-
QTools allows you to modify the ID of USB devices. This has been used for a while to get non-3Com USB ethernet devices to work with the 3Com Audreys that 3Com created and dropped last year. http://www.klsi.com/drivers/index.htm - look for qttoolsinstall.exe
So you're telling me that the new japanese PleasureVibe erotic force-feedback controller I got off Ebay won't work when I get shot on Halo? God damn that Microsoft...
--
If this is true, then we'll start seeing controllers with a user-selectable USB ID. Or just some software patch that will disable or work around the checks. On the PSX you can get an unlicensed yet professionally pressed disc that allows you to boot import games and copies without a modchip. Some asian pseudo-piracy company will simply produce a dvd-based XBox mod that will do whatever the users are willing to pay for.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
I'm no lawyer, but to take deliberate steps to subvert an open specification and lock out competition is surely an anti-trust violation.
The Xbox costs >500$ and a controller costs what 60$ at the most? I could care less about saving the 10$ on a {insert asian country name} knock-off really since I will just use a real MS controller for my >500$ machine.
That's like putting a AMB CPU inside your Socket A board because the AMB is 10$ cheaper. I'd rather spend the extra 10$ and know that the CPU I bought was a legit non-knock off.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Um, since USB ciructs are easy to program for, has anyone thought about using a USB hub on a linux box to gather packets from the "illegal" controller ,spoof the ID, and send the packets on to the XBOX and vice versa?
Just my two cents... ^_^
Aside from staggering releases why would you want to do this? It only makes preservation of the content more difficult. Doesn't region encoding things fly in the face of the entire "global economy" concept? I never have understood why movie and software companies go out of their way to make an international market difficult, impossible, or possibly even illegal. Any insight?
* 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.
Amazing. I remember when they told us the CPUID number would not be a big deal. But others coutered it would.
Now they have done it with USB. This looks like arbitrary restriction, and I can't see why it should be allowed. We really need a strong tech department within the US government to monitor the anti-competitive use of technological advancements.
Of course, lets be sure that department is not the take too...
Microsoft is evil. Bill is a convicted Monopolist. The company should be shut down. Do not buy an XBox - they are just Trojan hardware for Mr. Bill to continue to Try and control the world.
Buy a PS2 instead - then run the Linux kit on it...
Adults are obsolete children. - Dr. Seuss
even if this worked like the headline says, how long would it take for someone to make a usb filter which changes all the ids to your region? my guess is this: not very long.
free (as in mp3s) electronic music
You will have to pass a political orthodoxy test to get past the boot screen.
Q: What is the role of the US DOJ?
A: A) To promote and smooth the growth of large multinationals; B) To ensure the destruction of subversive whacko religious groups; C)To cuddle up in the Executive's lap and purr contentedly; D) All of the above.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
A Smart USB hub with built in USB ID Masquerading.
Seriously, most manufacturers have used something similar to this in the past. They'll pick a custom connector that they hold the patent on or make the interface proprietary. This was the rage before PCs started pushing FOR standards in order to allow multiply sourced options.
Xbox To Use Region-Locked Peripherals
True, maybe the Japanese controllers will work with the MS consoles, but we need to look beyond the immediate future here.
Hmm, let's think here...
Well, at any rate, it sure makes me nervous. Think about when they start selling region-locked Ethernet, or region locked hard drives, etc. add-ons for the Xbox. Region locking in general is a way for large companies to restrain trade contrary to international agreements. It was never a problem before recently because either (a) nobody thought of it (doubtful) or (b) the technological means to do it weren't around until recently.
DVD's have recently proven (in some people's minds, anyway) that "consumers" (if we're all consumers, who the hell is producing, btw?) will put up with this region locking restraint of trade nonsense. And it's a well known fact that the courts are so far behind in their understanding of technology that they won't figure out what's going on until nobody even remembers the way things used to be. I mean, "Microsoft" and "restraint of trade" -- who would have ever thought of those two words in the same sentence? :-) IOW, this doesn't surprise me in the least.
At least I know which gaming console I won't be buying anytime soon, though! :-)
---Have you crashed Windows XP with a simple printf recently? Try it!
Yet another reason on a very long list of reasons why I don't want one!
---- "Excuse me. Where's the children's gun section?"
Considering current trend in the evolution of 3D hardware, Xbox will get obsolete after couple of months. Isn't it anyway designed for people scared of today's normal-people-unfriendly computers?
This is perfectly fine if you think about cheap knockoffs that don't give Microsoft Licensing fees. But I think about my PSX with Dance Dance Revolution. Obscure peripherals like dance pads, light guns (nowadays), etc. Might be produced in Japan and not in the US, meaning XBox owners won't be able to play some games with the peripherals they desire. If this happens however, I guarantee a mod-chip inside of a couple months. And a perfect mod chip inside of 6.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
In the lastest case of embrace and extend, Microsoft has extended the old and out-moded Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard with their new Regional Serial Bus (RSB) standard.
"RSB is so much better than USB," a spokesmarketer explained, "Because there's none of that silly 'Universal' overhead -- I mean, programming a device to work anywhere in the universe? How many extraterrestrials are actually using this? I can't name any, so it certainly looks like wasted effort to me. We're just making life easier by reducing the amount of testing OEMs have to do on their equipment -- no more of this silly Mission to Mars business just to see if the buttons can still be pressed."
When asked for comment, Zheeb N'Vgali said "Berp meeka wut Microsoft saava wunga customer-hating bastards." before going back to tuning its interplanetary ion cannon.
In related news, NASA is adding its voice to the anti-Microsoft lawsuit uproar, charging Microsoft with anti-competitive practices and willfully eroding its consumer base.
[http://www.genitaldrive.com]http://www.genitaldri ve.com

I guess so.
I'd like a ticket off this rock now please.
Luck favors the prepared, darling.
Make one xbox.
Sell DVD Kit
Ensure that Microsoft does not sell out of region dvd players
It is that simple
> Update: this doesn't mean all peripherals will be
> region encoded. Apparently Joypads will work on
> both sides of the pond.
I'm sorry, I thought "the pond" generally was understood to mean the Atlantic, as in, "Tea at 5? Sure, I'll just jump in my Concorde and jump 'cross the pond." So do you mean joypads (or are "Joypads" and "joypads" different pond-jumping beasts?) can be imported to the US from the UK and the rest of the EU but not Japan? Horribly confusing.
And yes, for your crazy peeps down under, the subject meant to say "Isn't the pond on our left?"
It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
I can't imagine this causing much Joy!
NOCORVAIR
I don't think this is true. The site linked in the article here now states "A call from an Microsoft employee also came in. The Japanese X-Box joypad should work with USA consoles." Just a heads up. Make sure you read the stories before you get too fired up here.
After all, it's no longer "Universal", is it? Perhaps it could be called RSB, for "Regional Serial Bus", or perhaps NSB for "National Serial Bus".
Seriously, I can only see one or two reasons why someone would want to implement this region locking:
First, I doubt a domestic company would want to take tech support calls for foreign-made equipment. And, yes, you know some clueless fool will call MS up, waste their time, bitching about why his Far East ContollerPad isn't working. Worse, perhaps they aren't tested to similar standards and could pose a threat to the Xbox. Who knows?
Second, and this is the more insidious one, they might do this because of internal competition, the same reason DVD region locking is used. Regional branches of the same company making the same product may have wildly divergent pricing and release schedules. Since Asia usually gets the cool toys first, the North American division wants to protect its turf by preventing imports of the Asian goods until they can get around to marketing the product domestically. While that makes good business sense, it's typically used to hide a serious case of "head up the ass" when the domestic vendor is slow to put out new products.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I didn't read the article before posting the parent, and I just realized that they were suing Sony too.
Just wanted to let everyone know that yes, I'm an ass, and yes, I know it now, thank you very much. (I always kind of figures as much; I just never had any empirical proof.)
Sony is evil too
sulli
RTFJ.
This whole thing probably was done for the European Market. Microsoft charges over here about 500-600$ for the X-Box so they try to prevent cross imports from the US and Japan with region locks everywhere. Since I'm not a console owner I don't really care but this whole scheme might backfire, since the EU already investigates region locks. And for region locks in hardware there really is no explanation thank to lock out competition and keep prices high. (With movies they always can say there are different distributors in different regions etc...)
Richmod, WA. Microsoft today announced that the decision behind today's announcement is that the drivers for the devices are now part of the operating system. Microsoft spokeperson said, "This was the only logical decision. Once the Internet Exporer became part of the OS, we realized that only controller made by Microsoft could be working. It is physically impossible to replace them with other drivers."
In the related news, Microsoft announced Windows CE for pace-makers. The operating system includes the IE and the USB joystick drivers.
Microsoft can't go letting us have 3rd party controllers because we might get controlers which fit reasonably in our hands. That might just even the odds when playing against Bill Gates with his custom made "fits properly in your hand" controller. It might even let us play better than him! Now we can't go 0wning the richest man in the world in Halo now can we? ;)
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
Did anyone think that the whole reason why people are buying alternate Xbox controllers is because they are so unwieldy and large that it could crush a small child under the sheer weight of it?
Its really a safety concern when you think about it...
That someone is trying to restrict an individual's safety by blocking overseas sales, well, then, I say, "Yo Ho HO! Avast ye mateys! Come and get me, Customs! ARRRRRGGGGHHH!"
Oh, joy!
I don't think this is about cheap knockoffs at all. It is about control. If Japan can produce something that isn't offered here, why not allow it? It isn't the same as DVDs. Region encoding is so that people in one country cannot view DVDs before they are released in that country, but eventually they will be released. The companies want to CONTROL the release of them. For game consoles it is different, they want to CONTROL what you use, not because they are going to offer the same thing at a higher price, they simply are not going to offer it. That is what makes no sense. They want to make sure that you aren't able to get a better product than what you are offering, so you have no choice but to buy theirs.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
"The XBox is yours, but if you want to play any of the new games, you will have to rent a chip from us."
Why is Grand Theft Auto a much more serious crime than Reckless Driving?
Hm... and if you don't need a license to operate a fork, why should you be required to have a license to operate a car?
In the USA, you do not need a license to operate a car. It is perfectly legal to drive a car without a driver's license provided you are on private property. The license is required only when you venture out on to public roads in your automobile.
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
This is how MS is going to prevent people from plugging USB Keyboards into the XBox; it should be obvious.
Really. Big deal. It'd take me a couple of days to have a functioning USB vendor ID "filter/remapper" device functioning with a PIC and a USB chip. Total cost in parts, about $20.
Open source it, open source the hardware, put it on the web for Taiwanese mfr's to make freely at their own will and bundle with any cheap XBox peripherals they choose.
This sort of region locking is just stupid.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Adam Venus has region locking on his penis. His is set to the anus region.
1.) It prevents people from making backups of works which they purchased for the purpose of preserving their investment. You really should have the right install/run your software from a backup copy and and keep your master copy locked away in your firesafe.
2.) Their should be encouragement to preserve these works (some of them, anyway) for the future, especially since we haven't established the life span of these new media.
On top of this, increases in copyright duration, can remove the incentive to preserve a work for long enough to enter the public domain (so more stuff gets lost forever).
Why is Grand Theft Auto a much more serious crime than Reckless Driving?
If you remove the ability to region lock, then many companies will probably cease to sell their products in the poorer countries. The end result is that importation would probably slow down as well, since new laws would have to be created to stop the flood of low-cost knockoffs from outside the U.S. (note: I say U.S. because we are the biggest damn consumer as well as producer/marketer in the world). Patent laws would still prevent those products from being made in the poor countries (like they respect patent laws anyway) and so the availability will drop.
... bad.
This is pretty bad news for world trade and may lead to less trade between countries in the long run. Some are going to see this as a good thing (the anti-globalism people), but it can eventually lead to a lot of bad things as well, including increased tariffs and lower profits all around.
The third-world countries won't be affected too much by all this (they ignore the patent laws anyway and have a burgeoning black market in knockoffs), but the first-world countries are gonna suck it up
To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
I¦personally¦think¦regional¦locked¦items¦is¦more¦w orse¦then¦better..¦I¦mean,¦i¦go¦to¦another¦country ¦for¦example,¦see¦a¦totally¦cool¦DVD¦that¦I¦want,¦ but¦dont¦pick¦it¦up¦cause¦my¦'regional'¦player¦at¦ home¦wont¦play¦it..¦hrm¦...¦is¦this¦helping¦or¦hur ting¦media¦giants...?¦¦i¦think¦regional¦stuff¦is¦c rapp,¦who¦cares?
Now that's just stupid.
While I agree that this is the reason why Japanese controllers are not being allowed to be used on US consoles, it sure would have been nice to use the smaller Japanese controller.
No Jap controllers ? Does that means we won't be seeing the Little school girl ass spanking simulator, or the USB Tentacle rape device in EB any time soon ? : (
It's worth pointing out that out of all the XBox developers in the UK that I have visited (and that's a lot), every single one I saw uses Japanese controllers. The stock controllers are universally despised. Not only that, the certification process through Microsoft demands that the games work on these controllers and are tested as that.
We're all very puzzled how this utter nonsense story got out there and how NCSE picked it up. It just simply isn't true in any way shape or form. One developer I know even confirmed it with XBox developer support who said;
End of story....then switch over to protectionism.
Seems that nowadays this is the only method of keeping competitors out of reach.
In the good ole times there were the innovators and inventors on the helm. Now all we can see is shivering apparatchiks. Sigh. I thought we went over this already with DVD regions.
Use The Source, Luke!
Granted, they're pre-release dev japanese gamepads, but I've been using them on my retail US Xbox since November...
This was rumoured for ages even before the xbox was released. Only certain vendors will be able to make peripherals work with certain Xboxes. You can imagine that third parties wanting to sell a keyboard or mouse for the xbox will be screwed by this. After all, if you put a mouse and keyboard on an xbox, then you can put a web browser on it. And oh shit, looks like Mr. & Mrs. Joe Middle America's Windows PC is gathering dust.
When will people get it that the xbox doesn't deserve our money, or even for us to lend it credibility. It's not a console, it's just an electrified games industry consumer and publisher reaming machine.
If it wasn't for the Flash Linker business, I'd now say 'Buy a Gamecube'. Hell, seeing as only the games matter I'll say it anyway. Buy a Gamecube.
Preferences > Homepage > Customize stories on homepage > Authors > Zonk > Uncheck
I'm just wondering what would happen if you took a Japanese DVD playback dongle & plugged it into a US Xbox (or vice versa) - would it playback US DVDs, Japanese DVDs, or not work at all?
I'm particularly concerned about regions as I'm a Canadian resident & Xbox owner who's planning to move back to Australia sometime (and I'd kinda like to keep my Xbox)...
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
ok, at least when they region encoded DVDs there was some semblance of a reason. what reason is there for this other than to squeeze nickles? And how many people import controllers anyway? is the market the gargantuan to warrant this? have corporations (not just MS) all collectively shoved their heads up their asses? jesus. anyone else in favor of rising up and just revolting against the corporations? screw revolting against the government lets jsut get rid of the corps and start again.
-
I'm sure it's nothing more than to keep the "Hello Kitty" branded controllers out of the US.
The Xbox has no hardware-based region locking (aside from DVD) AT ALL. Zippo. You can import games and plop them in without a mod chip or anything.
/. is ready to leap at anything realted to the possible "monopolistic" business practices of Microsoft, but this is absurd. Do a little research. This is becoming nothing more than an anti-M$ World Weekly News. =P
This is a SOFTWARE thing. Certain developers/publishers can, if they so choose, employ region locking strategies. This is an OPTION and completely up to the developer/publisher.
It's developers and publishers (especially publishers since the US and JP publishers are almost never the same entity) and lose money off of importing, NOT Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo. Microsoft doesn't give a crap about importing, but some developers may. THEY are the ones who have employed region lockouts in their software.
This is very similar to what Squaresoft did with games such as Dino Crisis and Final Fantasy VIII--which had built-in mod-chip detection and wouldn't let you play the game in a modded system. (Of course, people figured out a way to circumvent it with Gameshark/Pro Action Replay...but that's hardly the point)
I know
-Jayde
What's a sig?
One of the apparent cornerstones of the community that seems to frequent this forum is functionality. Part of the definition of functionality is the ability to make diverse platforms / technologies interface. Anything that interferes with the ability to interface components is "evil".
Sometimes the interference is poor system design. Sometimes it is proprietary technology. And sometimes the technology that interferes with functionality is a marketing strategy.
Enter Microsoft.
We all know Microsoft is a technology company. But it seems to escape a lot of people's realization that they are a technology company who excels at marketing. It is their marketing, and not their technology, that makes them a leader.
A key part of Microsoft's marketing strategy is forced incompatability in their products. And in this community, that makes them "evil".
To be sure - anybody who uses the same strategy will be viewed unfavorably. Even companies who base their products on Linux.
Of course, Microsoft has a very long history of consistantly "evil" behavior. There is a good reason this community distrusts them. And they have deserved that distrust and criticism.
Sure - businesses should make money. But here's a novel concept - make money by making a good product. Use marketing as a tool to make sure people get to hear about your product and its advantages. And sure, this may sound very quaint to the Microsoft appologist / fan. But then, the free market concept has been around for a long time.
IIRC, "both sides of the pond" refers to the US and Europe - specifically, jolly old England. This would be due to the fact that 'the pond' is the Atlantic Ocean, not the Pacific. I don't know whta context you'd use for the Pacific. I'd htink something along the lines of "on the other side of the world".
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Warning about the fake fake warning that the update was fake. The update was fake, this fake waning is real.
..is probably to help protect Japanese retailers.
Like music CDs, it's probably cheaper to buy the (American) import than it is to buy from a local retailer in Japan. To help the Japanese retailers, most producers of media in Japan try to encourage buying locally. In the case of music CDs, they usually add extra tracks to the Japanese release to entice buyers, here they are forcing you to buy locally -- using a technique similar to that of regional encoding on DVDs.
I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it's not as evil as people think..
Stupider like a fox! - H.S.
The UID is proprietary information (similar to a password) and reverse engeneering it is against the law according to the DMCA.
Hold it. The letter of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act specifically permits acts of circumvention that are part of legitimate reverse-engineering for interoperability. From 17 USC 1201(f)(2):
Judge Kaplan made an idiotic mistake in completely ignoring this paragraph.
Will I retire or break 10K?
This is good news... this is one more reason to boycott XBox and Microsoft.
Of course, I will never purchase a Xbox anyway, so this won't really affect me. If I ever won a Xbox, say, from Taco Bell, I would probably sell it and get a Gamecube instead (I already have a PS2.)
The original poster is right, the use of "Pond" in this context is incorrect. The term originates *because* the Atlantic is so much smaller than the Pacific. Japan isn't on the other side of the Pond from the U.S., it's on the other side of the Lake.
GBA flash cards are considered illegal
How are GBA flash cards any more illegal than SmartMedia or CompactFlash cards?. If I load only free software onto a Visoly flash card for Game Boy Advance, whose copyright am I infringing? Yes, free software for GBA does exist, and copying the Nintendo boot logo is legal under Sega v. Accolade. (Read More...)
Will I retire or break 10K?
In any case, I don't think such a device would be allowing any access to copyrighted material, so the DMCA wouldn't apply.
<sarcasm>
Microsoft, with its effectively limitless legal defense fund, may be able to buy off a judge enough to convince him that the requirement to "Press Start" makes the controller an effective access control mechanism under the DMCA.
</sarcasm>
Will I retire or break 10K?
However, they are using a version of its monopoly OS inside this console.
It's a stripped-down Windows 2000 kernel (24 KB instead of 1 MB) with DirectX on top of it. There's no Internet Explorer on the XBox version of Win2K; can the states use this to establish that IE isn't necessary for Windows?
Will I retire or break 10K?
The moderator was moderating the orignal warning and the warning about the fake fake warning with fake moderating points, eliminating any problems.
I'm in Australia so Lik-Sang can still get stuff through to here
I ordered a GBA flash memory card and linker (for legit home development if you're curious; my GBA page is here) from Lik Sang and had it shipped EMS Speedpost (as opposed to UPS), and it arrived just fine. The problem is with UPS's over-restrictive customs policy.
Will I retire or break 10K?
we should be glad that imported controllers wont work with the xbox, that leaves more money in the states to help the economy. the us has a bad trade balance, maybe this will help us.
ign says " It's confirmed, the Japanese Xbox controller will work on American consoles."
Great, I hope I don't see region locked computer components in my lifetime.
Even the Politburo concurs with Process of Elimination http://process-of-elimination.net
I mean, really, if the producers are entitled to take advantage of the disparity to engorge their profits, why should it be considered so heinous for the consumers to take advantage of the disparity to engorge their DVD collection? Not that I'm in favour of a lot of corporate dealings, but there's the tiniest of incosistencies there.
Or is it because corp-rats are intrinsically better people than consumers? Hmmm, that must be it...
We've made machines that are smart enough to be snobbish.
(Dad): Happy birthday little Johnny, I got you that Xbox you wanted so bad.
(LJ): Gee, thanks dad! You're the best!
(Dad): I had to go up north to Canada to get the Xbox, but I was lucky enough to find the controllers right here in Seattle.
Later that night...
(Dad): What the !&#* do you mean it doesn't work?? After I spent over $400 on it and it doesn't even work?
To be continued...
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
Really... all this hype and no-one from the site had even tested the claims.
I love it when everyone pretends they're a business major. Because you know, Microsoft is stupid and didn't realize they would make more money if they listened to you.
Microsoft does not incur loss on sales of all hardware. The console itself they may take a loss on, but that does not include peripherals and accessories. If MadCatz can sell Xbox controllers for $30 and make money, don't you think MS is making money on their extra controller for $40, with their better manufacturing processes? Of course they are.
So "no valid reasons", let's summarize:
1) Region locking is acceptable business practice with most internal media companies.
2) Every console manufacturer ever has charged licensing fees from 3rd parties. Everyone on this thread who is blaming MS and saying they're trying to get a "lock" on Xbox hardware. Stop and realize how ridiculous you're sounding - it's a Microsoft console, they can control whatever they want, just like Nintendo and Sony do.
3) Cheap companies make cheap products, and as bad as it sounds, licensing is one way to control that your image will not get diluted from faulty accessories. Otherwise you could buy your memory cards at $1 stores that would fry your system.
If you look, the current market has plenty of 3rd party accessories for Xbox already, with plenty more to come. Driving wheels, controllers, and probably light guns soon, all reasonably priced. Let's not rush to bash MS (too late here) when they're following in the footsteps of other consoles, and creating a great product.
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You make the best point. Corporate America (and it may apply to European countries, but I see most glaringly in the US) has a real love economic double standards. Another example: They *want* restrictions and high tarrifs on products they can't compete on. They *don't* want restrictions on the importation of labor, because it cuts their costs. I often wonder if maybe capitalism isn't a huge, very long running ponzi scheme that requires the continuous shifting of labor and materials costs to cheaper and cheaper countries in order to keep the payouts working and higher and higher prices paid in the "expensive" countries to offset the decreasing savings of production shifts. I just wonder if/when it will break.
So the story is completely false then. So why is it still here? Just to foster some MS bashing I guess. You'd think if the mods were remotely responsible they would pull this off the site since it is totally incorrect. Do any of you even pay attention when the story has something to do with Microsoft?
I wonder if they'll accept my news submission of "Slashdot secretly run by Bill Gates"? I know its not true, but I guess that doesn't matter.
Good job guys. Keep up the thoughtless MS bashing.
why should it be considered so heinous for the consumers to take advantage of the disparity to engorge their DVD collection
Well, one could argue on the grounds that two wrongs do not make a right. If we're speaking strictly of DVD production, where are most of the DVD copies produced and what are the conditions?
I see a lot of the cheap knock-offs and bootlegs as an attempt by foreign merchants to cash in because of lax laws or enforcement. A large part of it can may also be attributed to a different view of property rights than we have here in the US.
I mean where else would there be a law that classed pliers as an illegal weapon because they could be used to cut fences? We're pretty aggressive about our property rights - I'm pretty sure it's still legal in my state to shoot trespassers as long as it's posted. This would probably horrify the people of most other countries.
I won't argue that corporations are any better than people. In theory, they're supposed to be the same for certain purposes. And yes, they can get depersonalized in the pursuit of a buck and forget that there are real people out there with real problems.
That still doesn't make it right to try and screw over a company. On the other hand, it's not right for a company to try and screw over the people.
But, from the standpoint of a corporation, the rules in foreign countries are already in place (ie., lower wages, lower cost of living). Why shouldn't they be allowed to play by those rules? If you don't like the rules, change them. For instance, what's to prevent a country from having two minimum wages - one for locally owned business, and one for foreign business? Or perhaps higher taxes for foreign business with the proceeds going to public works?
To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
Remember that I'm *not* talking about copies, legal or illegal: I'm talking solely about legitimate DVDs produced in another region. Totally within everyone's rules, and even within everyone's ethics (as taking advantage of sweatshop labour is *not*). Everyone's ethics, that is, except for the region Y corporations...
Hey, this seems to make sense to me somehow. Let me think, if I were to make a product and it happened to achieve world fame or demand, can I make the decision that my product can be sold in certain matter and chose how it is sold? I think so, that is the beauty of a free country, yes we have certain freedoms as a consumer; but microsoft also has certain freedoms as a maufacturer or inventor. Question? Who the heck is wanting a Japanese joystick anyway? Buy USA baby!
This is not true. I own an xbox and use the Jap pad. (It was hard to give in to M$, but I feel it is a nice machine)
Is anyone actually surprised? MS has just found a way to increase short term revenues, to the detriment of eceryone but them; certainly a rarity in the modern Western world.