Xbox Live in Japan
Posted by uruk on Friday, January 17 2003

The ultimate online arena opens for Japanese gamers. Exclusive pictures from the launch party.
Today, thousands of retail outlets began selling the Xbox Live Starter Kit in Japan for an estimated price of 6,800 Yen. Xbox LIVE will enable japanese gamers for the first time to find and play with their friends easily; talk to other players during game play through the Xbox Communicator headset; and download current statistics, new levels and characters to their Xbox hard drive.

Four Xbox LIVE-enabled games are already on retail shelves, and four other games are scheduled to be available at retail by the end of next month. The games available at retail now are Whacked!, Capcom vs. SNK 2: EO, Phantasy Star Online and Zunou. Microsoft Japan also had a LIVE launch party but this one had no celebreties showing their gaming skills, instead general public could assist the event.

More than 50 Xbox Live-enabled games are scheduled to launch in 2003 and beyond. Among the titles expected this year are Fishing Live Online, True Fantasy Star Online, -- Counter-Strike, Midtown Madness 3,and Star Wars Galaxies: Empire Divided, HALO 2, Project am 2, Amped 2 among others. More than 60 game publishers are currently working on Xbox Live-enabled games.