eBox. China's answer to game consoles. Because video game consoles are illegal there.

[~~whimsy~~]

The eBox is a Chinese game machine that offers players a controller-free experience. Sound familiar?

It's been dubbed a "Kinect clone" in refer to the controller-free Kinect platform that Microsoft is launching.

As posted previously, The eBox will come with 30 games built in and a set-top camera that can detect a player's movements, according to the article. According to Eedoo Technology, the company behind the product, this is only the second controller-free console.

"I think it's all about who builds the best experiences," Microsoft Game Studios exec Phil Spencer recently told Kotaku. "I don't think anybody longs to buy a piece of plastic to put under their TV. I think what it's going to be able is who has the best games and experiences for people. I think it's always been about that and should be."

Like Microsoft, Eedoo is betting that its console can offer inclusive entertainment. "Our product is designed for family entertainment. EBox may not have exquisite game graphics, or extensive violence, but it can inspire family members to get off the couch and get some exercise," Eedoo Technology honcho Jack Luo said this past August. Luo believes that since Eedoo is a Chinese company, it better understands the needs of local gamers.

"We don't really know anything about it other than that press release that went out," a Microsoft spokesperson pointed out. "Nobody really knows what it is doing and how it's doing it. We don't know about its content. There isn't a lot of clarity on it."

The eBox and eBox games have been shown in the Chinese press.

Microsoft is keen enter the Chinese game market, where the Xbox 360 (and other game consoles) are banned. The console, which is also assembled in China, is widely sold in the country's gray market.

"China is a very important market," added Spencer. "We would be foolish to not see it as a place where we have a future."

The eBox, which is slated to go on sale in early 2011, is expected to cost more than a Nintendo Wii, but less than a US$299 Xbox 360.

http://kotaku.com/5642574/microsoft-on-chinas-kinect-clone

 

[~~whimsy~~]

Re: eBox. China's answer to game consoles. Because video game consoles are illegal th

The video game console ban article:

Video game consoles are illegal in China. Ironically, the Wii, the PS3 and the Xbox 360 are Chinese made. And there is a flourishing PC gaming culture. There has to be a reason for this ban. Turns out, there is.

"Consoles have been banned in China since the year 2000," Lisa Hanson from market researcher Niko Partners tells Kotaku. "The government thought that was the best way to protect Chinese youth from wasting their minds on video games, after a parental outcry." The following year, online gaming exploded, and the market size hit $100 million. So the ban, Hanson says, "didn't stop the 'problem'."

A recent article on Chinese news site Sina.com points out, "In June 2000, the Ministry of Culture issued a notice, forbidding any company or individual to produce and sell electronic game equipment and accessories to China."

Plug'n'play consoles became a legal alternative to the banned home consoles. Nintendo released the iQue Player, a console it developed with software developer Wei Yen, whose California-based company AiLive co-created the Wii MotionPlus. The iQue Player was priced at US$60, and it is not a pure plug'n'play per se. Players can play Nintendo 64 games like Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Super Smash Bros. that were specifically ported to the system. To get new games, players go to their local game retailer, where they can download more titles onto a 64MB flash memory card. The cartridge is slotted directly into the controller, which houses the console.

"We have targeted people in developed countries such as Japan, the US and Europe with sophisticated machines," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said back in 2003. "To reach a wide range of people in China, especially those inland who are not as rich as those in coastal areas, we thought we needed to deliver a cheaper console." And to legally sell a video game console in China, it had to sell something that not only didn't quite look like a video game console and couldn't be pirated to Timbuktu and back. (That's not to say the iQue Player is piracy free!) Since then, Nintendo has used the "iQue" brand in China for its characters and products.

http://kotaku.com/5587577/why-are-consoles-banned-in-china

 

[mushroomhunting]

Re: eBox. China's answer to game consoles. Because video game consoles are illegal th

i did not know videogames are illegal in China. Of course it doesnt seem to matter according to all that posted.