XBOX live - region encoding? Unsupported or Locked out? According to early chat on the various game message boards, the upcoming Microsoft Xbox Live network may enforce "region lockout" for their multiplayer games. Pasted text from Microsoft support reps indicate to US overseas based gamers that they do not support consoles used out of region, thus, US Xbox Live may not be available to them. Whether this means they are on their own, or whether it means they will be blocked, is unknown at this time. The European Xbox live network has no launch date as yet. European and other XBox users will almost certainly be locked out of access to the new US Xbox live network. But any extension of region lockout may cause problems for US military and workers overseas who purchased US Xboxes with the expectation that they will be fully functional.
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 | | Xbox Live Server Locations... Servers for Xbox Live when they do launch it are going to be in Seattle, Tokyo, and London. Think there is another but cant remember it. | |
| vic102482Premium
join:2002-04-30
Upper Marlboro, MD | and the programmers are off with C++ in first My bet is on VB, but hey anybody can win, who is gonna write the first program that will be able to access the xbox live etwork regaurdless of location? | |
| jpd82
join:2002-07-21
Plano, TX | Good luck with Level 3 Good luck to anyone who signs up for XBOX live. Microsoft has made a peering arrangement with Level 3 to provide the backbone for the XBOX Live network. Anyone with Earthlink DSL knows that Level 3 is synonomous with 20 hops and poor latency. | |
|  | | | Re: Good luck with Level 3 How can that be. Earthlink just received the best rating from JD Power & Associates for quality of broadband speed and service, and customer service. I read it here on DSLR yesterday... | |
| | |  skyjock41Shag DieselPremium
join:2001-12-11
Patrick Afb, FL | Re: Good luck with Level 3 Thats cause they block spam and advertisement pop ups. Has nothing to do with the minimal hops they use. | |
|
 PenguinsHave You Played Atari Today?
join:2001-12-01
Cleveland, OH | Since the BIOS has already been cracked... ...and people are pirating the games, they dont stand much of a chance of locking out anything.
If they ban IP blocks it should take oh say 15 seconds or so for someone to realize there is money to be made in a US bases packet forwarding service. | |
| | | Throwing punches? Let me ask the obvious question and say: "What is Microsoft's reason for the 'lock'?
Thank you for your time. | |
| |  KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| Re: Throwing punches? said by Dachi:
Let me ask the obvious question and say: "What is Microsoft's reason for the 'lock'?
Thank you for your time.
I have one.
Pricing. You see, in foreign markets, Microsoft might sell the same game they sell here for $60 they might sell there for $25.
So: Bang, they need Gouge-O-Matic protection to stop you from simply buying the cheap version somewhere else and re-importing it to the U.S.A. and using it here. This way they try and force everyone to pay inflated prices here.
This is why there are laws banning re-imported software, movies, music, drugs, etc etc. So that consumers in different parts of the world can be charged more.
So, there's your reason for region encoding. There's no other valid reason. | |
| | |  ravitalJust Another Pesky Independent Nh VoterPremium
join:2001-07-19
Merrimack, NH
| Re: Throwing punches? said by KrK:
This is why there are laws banning re-imported software, movies, music, drugs, etc etc. So that consumers in different parts of the world can be charged more.
I'm not questioning you, but I'd like to know if you can point me to some source of info on that, because I've been buying DVD movies from sites in Europe and every package is delivered to me with an official note from the U.S. Customs saying they cleared it, so it looks like it's perfectly legal, at least for movies.
Granted, they are all foreign titles, but nothing keeps me from buying an american-made film, say MIB, from the same european site (can't think of a reason why I would) and it doesn't look like the U.S. Customs cares enough to open the package and check...
[text was edited by author 2002-08-20 21:33:38] | |
| | | | vic102482Premium
join:2002-04-30
Upper Marlboro, MD Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
| Re: Throwing punches? thats why they have reginal lockouts, your dvd player is SUPPOSED to detect that it is not from the us and not allow you to play it. I tried to play a dvd from a forgein country and it wouldnt allow me to do so. Also blank cd imports are supposed to have been stopped by customs. | |
| | | | | | | Re: Throwing punches? Regional coding doesn't seem to mean much anymore. DVD makers already make cookies in their DVD's that give you the means to change the region code of that DVD. Not much point anymore considering how international commerce is getting easier and easier for the little guy to get stuff.
»news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci···7548.stm
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Love Science Fiction? www.spacestationzoom.com | |
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| | | KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK Reviews:
·AT&T DSL Service
| You're able to do it because it's just small time operation (you, one guy) and the U.S. Customs is being lax.
However, let's say, a business tried to buy up say 5,000 copies of a title from Asia, then re-import it to the U.S.A. so they could sell it for $30 instead of $50 and make $10 more dollars on it.
They'd be blocked by law.... or at least by big lawsuits. I remember a case a few years back when Microsoft went after Wal-Mart because Wal-Mart was selling M$ products they'd re-imported from overseas in order to sell them cheaper. M$ won, and that's why their products sell the same price (within a few $$$) no matter where you buy them in the U.S.A. | |
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| |  pupowskiPremium
join:2002-03-22
Vancouver, WA | said by KrK:
said by Dachi:
Let me ask the obvious question and say: "What is Microsoft's reason for the 'lock'?
Thank you for your time.
I have one.
Pricing. You see, in foreign markets, Microsoft might sell the same game they sell here for $60 they might sell there for $25.
So: Bang, they need Gouge-O-Matic protection to stop you from simply buying the cheap version somewhere else and re-importing it to the U.S.A. and using it here. This way they try and force everyone to pay inflated prices here.
This is why there are laws banning re-imported software, movies, music, drugs, etc etc. So that consumers in different parts of the world can be charged more.
So, there's your reason for region encoding. There's no other valid reason.
So much for free markets. The monopolists always have a story, so do their minions in government who won't let us re-import US products they claim are "tainted in some manner. That's why legitimate US prescription drugs, software, music,and movies can cost 5-6 times the price in other countries. Just across the border in Canada, some prescriptions that cost almost $600.00 in Washington State sell for as little as $80.00.
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Trust the Constitution, not the administration. | |
| | | | KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK Reviews:
·AT&T DSL Service
| Re: Throwing punches? said by pupowski:
So much for free markets. The monopolists always have a story, so do their minions in government who won't let us re-import US products they claim are "tainted in some manner. That's why legitimate US prescription drugs, software, music,and movies can cost 5-6 times the price in other countries. Just across the border in Canada, some prescriptions that cost almost $600.00 in Washington State sell for as little as $80.00.
And conversely, an item that sells for $50.00 here may cost only $5-$10 in South America. It is not a question of cost based pricing, but pricing at "what the market will bear". The people in the U.S.A. often pay much higher prices for the exact same products then people in other countries do. | |
| | | | | pupowskiPremium
join:2002-03-22
Vancouver, WA | Re: Throwing punches? said by KrK:
And conversely, an item It is not a question of cost based pricing, but pricing at "what the market will bear". The people in the U.S.A. often pay much higher prices for the exact same products then people in other countries do.
Not true, because the market is not allowed to function when supply and demand are artificially restricted. In a free market, Canadian wholesalers would export drugs to compete with the US market, narrowing the price differential. Arbitrageurs trade similar basis differentials all the time in other commodities.
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Trust the Constitution, not the administration. | |
| | | | | | KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK Reviews:
·AT&T DSL Service
| Re: Throwing punches? I don't follow, you said "Not true" and then argued a point that agrees with what I said. In a true free market, if Manufacturer X sold a product for $100 here and $50 there, it wouldn't take long before a brisk business sprang up of people bringing the product from there to here and undercutting the manufacturer's price, thus, driving down the excessive markup. However, rather then allow the market to do that, instead Manufacturer X lobbies for legal protections (or uses the courts) to block such re-importation, thus protecting their high prices.
I think you are in agreement.
People always talk about how we live in a free market country, but it's really not the case at all. A true free market would be a system based on anarchy--- where there were no laws or restrictions and only supply and demand set the prices. However anarchy just won't work, because then even the suppliers are destroyed by the lawlessness.
America, like I think all other nations on Earth, is really a socialist country. It's just a matter of degree.
People have to remember the differences between an Economic system and Political system. Politically, the U.S. is a Representative Democracy (well, in ideals, anyway) but economically it's a socialist country.
Even the politically "Communist" countries are also economically socialist countries... they are just more restrictive and tightly controlled then the U.S.A. which is a lot closer to the free market, but still not actually a free market. | |
| | | | | | | pupowskiPremium
join:2002-03-22
Vancouver, WA | Re: Throwing punches? said by KrK:
People always talk about how we live in a free market country, but it's really not the case at all. A true free market would be a system based on anarchy--- where there were no laws or restrictions and only supply and demand set the prices. However anarchy just won't work, because then even the suppliers are destroyed by the lawlessness.
Capitalism doesn't work without rules and regulations, and even its symbol, the Stock Market, is regulated, but not for price. It appears we are saying the same thing different ways. Obviously, anytime a company can keep competitors at bay with patents and restrictive trade laws, there is no free market.
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Trust the Constitution, not the administration. | |
|
 ArchAngel21xWaiting For iPhone 5Premium
join:2001-10-28
Lincoln, NE
·Internet Nebraska
| I Hate Regional Lockouts As much as I love Playstation, I hate the trend they started with regional lockouts. There are cool games that never make it to the US, and I don't want to mess up my Playstation by trying to mod it so I can play games from Japan. Damn this lock out crap. And for that matter, damn DVD players for having that feature too.
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"Death Is Irrelevant" | |
| | | | Re: I Hate Regional Lockouts I'm pretty sure that region specific software existed before the playstation. I seem to recall the cartridges for the Super NES and Super Famicom being of a different size to prevent people from importing games. | |
| | | Reviews:
·Frontier FiOS
| Re: I Hate Regional Lockouts said by avaric3:
I'm pretty sure that region specific software existed before the playstation.
You are right. My PC Engine used the same size difference in the carts.
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You've glimpsed the fist within the Bene Gesserit glove. Few glimpse it and live. | |
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| ArchAngel21xWaiting For iPhone 5Premium
join:2001-10-28
Lincoln, NE Reviews:
·Internet Nebraska
| I always thought that was just a difference in the way it looked, and the cartridges didn't fit because of it. Not because they wanted to prevent people from playing Japanese SNES games. I could be wrong. By the way the Japanese version looked better.
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"Death Is Irrelevant" | |
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 ozzny5YankeefanPremium
join:2002-04-23
Bronx, NY | hope i just hope that when xbox launches there aren't any major network issues going on. i bought the xbox just to be bale to play it online and it would really piss me off if i had to deal with console gaming issues.
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Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere. | |
| n4cer
join:2000-09-23
Birmingham, AL | Live Software I don't think this lockout will be enforced through the games, but as a result of how the Live software handles sign-up and billing. From what I've seen of early versions of the XBOX Live software, there will be several localized versions. The North American Live software has billing options for USA and Canada only. In this way, the software is locked to only USA and Canadian residents.
As another poster mentioned, MS will have several datacenters located in various places around the world. The service has been showcased as having the ability to connect multiple people across the world in a game, so maybe the software will check to see which datacenter offers the lowest latency to wherever you are located. If you have an XBOX for a region other than the one you live in, and you want to play Live, you may have to get the Live software for the region in which you live, for sign-up and billing purposes. | |
| |  ThirdShifterPremium
join:2002-03-16
Vernon Rockville, CT
kudos:1
 ·Comcast
| Re: Live Software Just letting you guys know incase some of you don't know regional lock outs and bla bla is history.We either could mod the player/console i did works great plus can play pirated software and titles and for 15 bucks investment i could save thousands of dollar yippie
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The box said "Requires Windows 95, NT, or better", so I installed Linux | |
| | |  hardflipMindfieldPremium
join:2002-02-28
Andover, MA | Re: Live Software I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft somehow locks out Xbox's that have been modded. Seems consistent with current business practices. | |
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| A quote: He who controls Arrakis controls the spice... and he who controls the spice controls the universe.
Don't know why, but this article made me think of that quote. Ok, maybe I do know why. 
Dirk
[text was edited by author 2002-08-21 07:52:45] | |
| | | Region lock to prevent excessive latency It's actually a good thing to a good game experience. Even play those PC games from east coast to west coast proves to be difficult. Can not imagine someone from Europe joins the game and everyone else just lags out. | |
| | | Reasons for lockouts There are some reasons for lockouts and reginal coding:
1) Languages - DVD's sold in this country are English w/French as a secondary language. What about South America where Spanish is the language? Some of these could be different language options.
2) Video Standards - In the USA, we use NTSC. PAL is used a lot of Europe (except France which uses SECAM) and South America in all different sub standards.
While I do not agree with the practice, these can be 2 VALID reasons for regional coding. | |
| | |  San Diego..................
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