An amusingly
crusty node, which can remain in the
nodegel for historical interest. I was right about the hacking potential - I'm still considering picking an XBox up for
emulation, especially since someone's just made a joyport->
USB adaptor, and there are USB adaptors for most
retro control pads. I was wrong about
Japan though, very wrong. After all the huffle,
Konami won't even be releasing
Metal Gear Substance over there due to the installed userbase being about six
Microsoft Execs. As predicted though, it's selling well in the US (especially now that
xenophobia patriotism is back in vogue), and reasonably well in the
UK, but tanking everywhere else, and at this point in time (November 2002) still has an installed userbase of less than 1,000,000.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the X-Box. Why? Because it's the fixed-hardware hack-platform from heaven.
Emulation is what I'm talking about.
x86 core? Hardware-optimised
DirectX? Hmm, so those DirectX/
ASM emulators will be pretty easy to port then, and run at a rather vast speed. Subsequent hardware optimisation will yield greater speed still. Yum.
Playstation emulation won't be a problem, and
Dreamcast emulation isn't unfeasible.
As for MS's chances in Japan, they're higher than most of the writeups on this node state. "Arcade also-rans"
Konami have a little project known as
Metal Gear: Sons Of Liberty, which is currently serving as the
Playstation 2's main
jam tomorrow promise. It's also being released on the X-Box, likely with added features and almost certainly with better graphics. (Note: it's not been confirmed that
Metal Gear X will be a Sons of Liberty port, but recent press releases make it sound very likely). The only title on the PS2 currently really worth playing,
SSX, is also recieving an X-Box port, with network/online play, better graphics, yada yada.
One of the reasons why Konami are developing for the X-Box, asides from
big, fat sacks of cash money, is that they owe their early home-computer success to the
MSX, Microsoft's 8-bit home computer from the mid/late 80's (incidently the first two Metal Gear games were originally developed for the MSX ). Japanese gamers remember the MSX as a decent, popular system (it was), and will likely be less opposed to the X-Box than western 'hardcore' gamers.
What will really make/break the X-Box in Japan will probably be RPG's. Both
Sonic Team and
Squaresoft have expressed an interest in developing for the X-Box, with a port of
Final Fantasy XI, the first all-online FF, all but confirmed.
But why should Japan lead the gaming market, just because it's a
console rather than a
computer? DirectX, x86 core, PC style architecture... I think we'll see a lot of titles which would previously have only seen a PC release entering the console market. This, along with the fact that the X-Box has no
regional-hardware lockout (just like the PC software distribution model) will take the focus of gaming away from Japan and move it more towards the west. Alternately, it will split the console market with an East/West divide; it looks like MS is going to be pushing the
All American aspect of the X-Box, which is a horrific, but likely effective, marketing ploy.
But hey, it's not seeing a
UK release until Easter 2002 at the earliest, so I can just stand back and watch it rise/fall for a while. I think it'll do well, but I haven't decided if that's a good thing.