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Games Entertainment

'Q' Plays US GameCube Games 96

Posted by michael from the things-to-do-with-a-soldering-iron dept.
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."
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'Q' Plays US GameCube Games More

'Q' Plays US GameCube Games

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  • Why is it? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17, 2001 @07:11AM (#2714237)
    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?
    • Some people have pointed out the general reason--it's much cheaper to launch in a small test market.

      This goes double for a company whose home market is sophisticated, inward-looking and protected by a strong language barrier.

      There is no technical reason why an American company should not launch a Cube/DVD hybrid, and no technical reason why a US GameCube shouldn't play both Japanese and US games. These aren't technological issues at all. Markets aren't always quite so free as to operate in the interests of the consumer, although they're usually just free enough to operate in the interests of those who wish to profit by export.

      • You're right about Japn being an easier market because it's small. However, the main reason Nintendo didn't put a DVD in the US GamCube is also because they want it to be cheap to produce so that it can have this 100$ price difference with XBox & PS2. This is giving them a big advantage with everyone that's been hit by the recession. It also makes it likely that people who decide to buy 2 consoles will choose the GameCube as one of them.
      • Japan is NOT a small market. Japan is a country of 120 million people, only a little less than half that of the United States. And Japan's consumers tend to be more technically sophisticated than American consumers. Japanese consumers demand all of the features that are included for the Japanese models. There is a conception that the Americans want everything BIGGER and SIMPLER. So for the American market, the products are physically bigger and with less features. There is also the fact that because of having to ship products across the Pacific, they lose money on the shipping, so they can cut the price of the product by removing features and/or making it in a more shoddy factory in China instead of a Japanese factory.


        Cryptnotic

        • Japan is NOT a small market.

          You're right, I was wrong to imply that it was small. In fact, I write from a European vantage point and was comparing local markets against global market. In such a context, I would probably have referred to the US market as small. Which would also be wrong. The contrast is between the local homogeneous market that you know well and the larger collection of heterogeneous markets that you don't know or are not yet interested in testing.

    • well .. you have two things. First is why Panasonic didn't release their gamecube clone outside of Japan. Well, that is the easier one. Nintendo licensed their clone for Japan only sales! They try and sell here .. and well .. lets just say things happen that aren't pretty.

      Now as to the entire thing about why Japanese companies sell "handicapped" products like the game cube that can't be flipped from region to region. Quite frankly its money. The will actually get more money in the long run here if they sell they base ... then wait and come out with upgrades over time.

      Nokia did the same thing origianlly, claiming that its [then new] phone, while capable of IR communications did not have the parts and it was a 40 dollar upgrade that was made available in the states later. When the truth is, everything was there in the phone, except the firmware was programed to lock out the IR port.

      Same with other things. My Samsung 3.1 GHz phone for example which I got right when they were curtailing the model ... three years ago. I got one of the last ones of that model sold. And now, just recently have 3.1 Ghz phones appeared on the US market.

      Simply Japan sees American consumers thinking, hmm my phone now sucks, time to get a new one!
      Japanese Consumers wait or protest.
    • and why dont we i europe get anything on time!

      lifes a bitch :P

    • 'cause (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Japan is cool, and you are not.

  • Surely.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by NirishChas ( 543913 ) on Monday December 17, 2001 @07:16AM (#2714251)
    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?

    • Marketing. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by brunes69 ( 86786 ) <slashdot AT keirstead DOT org> on Monday December 17, 2001 @07:27AM (#2714277)

      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!

      • 3DO (Score:1)

        by Snover ( 469130 )
        Just remember what happened to their 3DO system in the US: Crash'n'burn. Not that it didn't die everywhere else as well, but I think they're afraid of expending so much just to make another failed game system. Still, I'm not sure why they're so worried, it's not like they're making a KILLING in other fields.

  • Import games (Score:1, Redundant)

    by LinuxGeek ( 6139 )
    Why do companies play these games? You can look at the cool products that they sell in Japan or Europe but they won't import them. Do they sell them for more with the exclusivity factored in? Bah... I didn't want anyway, nope wouldn't take one if they gave it to me now. Yeah, maybe if we don't want them, imports will start right away.

    • Re:Import games (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I could ask why so much stuff is released in the US only... How do YOU like it now?

    • Re:Import games (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Bilestoad ( 60385 ) on Monday December 17, 2001 @07:30AM (#2714288)
      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.
    • Mostly its so they can get away with price fixing products for certain markets.

      The Japanese might pay more (or less, depending on the product) than the average US consumer for the same product. If there were no export restrictions or regional encoding, it would be difficult for the companies to manage this issue as savvy consumers would choose to import the lower cost version rather than buying the more expensive local version.

      The thing that really bothers me about all of this, though, is that the mega-corps want it both ways. They want a 'globalized economy' so they can exploit cheap labor in other countries, and at the same time they want artificial restrictions on where and how their products can be distributed. Fuckers.

  • Well if panasonic is like sony... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SquierStrat ( 42516 ) on Monday December 17, 2001 @07:18AM (#2714260) Homepage
    then whoever puts out information on how to mod it out, or anyone who sells mod chips of any kind will get sued! :-(
    • Which lawsuit do you mean? The only lawsuit I can find on the 'net is the connectix VGS [macnn.com] one, which sony lost horribly, forcing them to buy them out. Mod chips, reverse engineering, emulation are All Perfectly legal, and we have legal precedence for this. As long as you aren't 'damaging' the company. It is also impossible to 'prove' that a modchip harms a company, since you had to buy the hardware in the first place to mod it. There are also Substantial Non-Infringing uses for a mod-chip. Such as the playback of other region DVDs or the use of Backup Discs. Just as the VCR has the ability to copy movies. The substantial non-infringing uses for a VCR, time shifting Television for one, makes it legal.

      If sony could win a lawsuit agains modchip makers they would sue them until they were blue in the face. But they can't win. That is why the same modchip people from 3-4 years ago are still selling modchips today. Sony and panasonic can't touch them.
      • Umm, I can't remember the URL, but a day or two ago I saw that they were suing PS2 mod chip makers. I thought it was here hence, I didn't post my reference.

        Either or, while we have legal precedence for reverse engineering et cetera, it still doesn't stop the DMCA sillyness from allowing for suits and jail time in the U.S. :-(

        Also, even thought he mod chip makers may win...the costs of the suit could knock them off the map in some cases.
        • This story here [slashdot.org] is the one you're looking for. The critical difference here is that the Nintendo mod, unlike the Sony one, just opens the machine up to play US games as well as Japan ones. Sony seems to worry a lot more about imports, but mainly worries about the fact that Sony mods also let you play pirate games.

  • If Q Plays game cube games..... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17, 2001 @07:22AM (#2714266)
    Then M probably plays PSII games.

    Which means 007 himself must be left with the x-box. Ouch.

  • He does? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Xpilot ( 117961 ) on Monday December 17, 2001 @07:42AM (#2714307) Homepage
    Oh wait, I thought you meant this guy [u-net.com].

    You'd think he'd have better things to do, like bug Jean-Luc.
  • 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.

    • We don't know yet as there are no European GameCubes or games.

      Will Ninty follow Sony's lead and move to prohibit the sale and development of modchips?

  • My girlfriend was disappointed that the gamecube could not also function as a DVD player.
    Perhaps I can get her one of these, and take my gamecube back here, into my lair, with my computer! Where it belongs! Grahaha
    Away from the vile, fuzzy television.
  • 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]:

    http://www.lik-sang.com/catalog/master.php?navbar= Opened+Q&inc=qmod.inc [lik-sang.com]
    • Wow. It sure looks a lot more elegant on the outside than on the inside. Unlike the nice simplicity of a common GameCube's guts, this thing has circuit boards and ribbon cables galore. I'm surprised it's only ~$100 more. They must expect to cost-reduce it in the future.

  • What's Up With This? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by hyyx ( 447405 )
    Take a look at this link [panasonic.com] 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?
  • Does anybody know what sort of processor the 'Q' is using? Is it the custom-designed PowerPC that IBM did for Nintendo, or is it something else? And if it's not, will this affect gameplay in any way?
  • It's a shame Panasonic chose not to release it to North American store shelves, but the import will soon work just as well.

    Please try and get your facts straight. I was previously reported on all the gaming websites that Nintendo didn't want the Panasonic DVD-Cube coming to the U.S.. Nintendo intended that the Gamecube be solely a video game console, not a Console/DVD player here in the States.

  • Will be here soon enough... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    My understanding from an article I read earlier was that Nintendo did not want compatible products released in the US market before the Xmas season. Supposedly they feared it would cause confusion in the marketplace, and wanted some time for the GameCube to establish itself before the brand was diluted by compatible units. I believe there will be an American version of this device in the near future.

  • DVD not a selling feature of consoles. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Maul ( 83993 ) on Monday December 17, 2001 @11:10AM (#2715008) Journal
    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.
  • 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?
    • This does sound pretty realistic. I have heard a rumor that you can use Minidisc's instead of the 3Inch DVD's. There is a lot of GC trading on IRC.
    • American Warez Kiddies?

      No, I think they fear the Asian Piracy Industry more than American 'w4r3z k1dd13z'. In the US there are simply groups of kids that rip and release games over the net, etc. In Asia, piracy is a HUGE industry with lots of money behind it. This is why the XBox will not be released in some areas, because microsoft is selling the XCrotch at a loss and making the money up on games. If everyone and their mother is pirating Xbox games then thats bad for MS.

      I'm sure Nintendo of America has their reasons for not wanting the Q not released in the US (monetary probably) but 'American Warez Kiddies' probably aren't even on that list.

  • The other day my buddy took me out to the San Jose Berryessa flea market to show me some of these [gamersgraveyard.com]. I don't know what kind of breakdown we've had in customs, but it looks like more and more knockoff's are going to start pouring into the states. Although this piece of hardware isn't a knockoff, it shouldn't take too long for these to be snuck through customs.

  • Why was this made in the first place? Consoles are notorious for being sold and just cost or being sold at a loss in order to recoup on proceeds from liscensing of games?

    I'm pretty certain that Panasonic is not gaining any funds from liscensing GameCube games because Nintendo would probably have something to say about that. Then this is either a product that will 1. fail horribly or 2. costs quite a bit more than average (see #1).

  • 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.
    • lol... you are clueless, dude. piracy is HUGE in asia. as in, REAL piracy, not warez-d00dz on IRC.

      dont tell me you didnt see the story about winXP being sold for 5bucks a pop in asia, 3 days BEFORE it was officially released here in the states? there is a huge black market of illegally burned software of all sorts over there.
  • 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..

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