Xbox Gets Japanese Dress-Up, Rumored Price Cut, Giveaway

Thanks to 1UP for their article showing off special new case artwork for the Xbox in Japan, as "a few lucky winners will be able to snag these art pieces by signing up on Microsoft's Japanese webpage" - hip artists enlisted include T-shirt designer Nigo and Moshino Katsura. Elsewhere, GI.biz recently relayed unconfirmed rumors of an Xbox price drop in Japan, claiming "a new Xbox bundle for Project Gotham Racing 2 which will feature a console, a DVD playback kit, two months free on Xbox Live and copies of PGR2 and Halo for 19,800 Yen [$181]." Finally, GamePro have noted that Microsoft are giving away their Xbox Music Mixer karaoke/mixing software, "most likely... as a cover-mounted CD", in the January 2004 issue of popular Japanese magazine, Famitsu, further showing the company is "aggressively vying for a solid foothold against the PS2, which has been dominating the console market in Japan."