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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.
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!
I have a jap controller and a ps2 converter controller and both work. If you read down on the article it says that they should work as well. Only the headline says they don't.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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'.
Look, nobody could argue that MS has monopoly power in the gaming console market. Therefore, antotrust law doesn't even enter into it.
I have absolutely no problem with them doing this. The problem I have is if they want legal protection to allow them to protect this revenue stream. It should be perfectly legal to create a USB pass-through that modifies the region coding on a device in order to allow non-region devices to work. This is the same issue as with DVD. I don't care if DVD manufacturers want to put region coding on the DVD, but if I figure out a way to defeat that region coding, that should be perfectly legal.
"If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for everyone else."
Oh hooey! This is exactly the same as if a fork manufacturer tried to restrict the brands of pork chops you were allowed to stick it into. Selling a product entitles you to be paid for the product; it does not magically grant you additional rights to dictate to third parties how to conduct their business. That's called an "anticompetitive practice", and the current administration notwithstanding, it's illegal.
Of course, the laws are written for and interpreted by people who are paid by the people who want the laws in the first place, so it's rather academic, but still...
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
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!
Yes the XBOX is a marketed as console (although, as you and I know, it's suspiciously close to a PC). It is, however, the only console to disallow importing peripherals. A joypad bought in Japan is not any less official than one bought in the UK, the USA etc. And what makes you think for that matter that "cheap Taiwanese knockoffs" will not create "cheap joystick knowoffs" with US USB ids?
This is a good example of Microsoft trying to totally control their livingroom PC...
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.
/. party we had to celebrate the brilliance of Intel making a proprietary slot connector for their CPUs to lock out clones! At least I assume it was kick-ass... I can't remember a thing about it!
Oh, that's right. I remember all those posts along the lines of "God bless Nintendo for using proprietary DVD technology to lock out unlicensed 3rd party developers!" I myself have written ballads in praise of Cisco for breaking compatability with other company's routers. And don't forget the kick-ass
Or maybe it's because it didn't happen.
Nice try, but if you want hypocrisy, you'll have to search for it somewhere else. Go check any other article where someone has tried to lock in their market share by locking -out- competitors, and you'll find the only people who thought it was okay -then- are the ones who are saying it's okay for MS to do -now-... Like you.
The enemies of Democracy are
Did somebody say Apple?
If I trash my XBox... No one has any recourse for my actions. It [is/should be] mine to do with as I please.
Actually, I'm guessing you, like most, will try to use the waranty period to your advantage as much as possible. So if you plug in a peripheral, and it hoses your machine, you'll be expecting a replacement console. So Microsoft does have a period of responsibility, implied and explicit, for which they have every right to attempt to protect themselves.
Now start the movement to ax all warranty laws, and your argument will hold water.
This is how MS is going to prevent people from plugging USB Keyboards into the XBox; it should be obvious.
...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!