The leading online video game rental service, RedOctane (www.redoctane.com
<http://www.redoctane.com>), announced today that they will begin to take
pre-orders on Microsoft Xbox games. The Xbox games will be available online for
the standard 7-day rental price of $6.95. Members of the RedOctane's G2 Program
will have unlimited access to Xbox games for a monthly fee of $16.95.
"The response from gamers to Xbox games has been very exciting," explains Kai
Huang, CEO of RedOctane. "With only one week to go before the launch of the
Xbox, we've seen G2 Unlimited Rental signups rise 29%, with most new members
clamoring for key games like Halo, Oddworld: Munch's Odyssey, and NFL Fever
2002. A lot of our G2 members have shown a keen interest in the Xbox games,
which is great because they can play as many Xbox games as they want without
worrying about due dates and late fees. The beauty of our program is that they
can also rent GameCube, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast, and original PlayStation games
in addition to Xbox titles." Roughly 20 game titles by various publishers will
be available on November 15th and RedOctane will carry most of them. With
support from a number of Japanese and European game makers, as well as most
North American game publishers, Microsoft looks to have an extensive game
library by the spring of 2002.
In conjunction with the release of the Xbox, RedOctane will also be giving
away an Xbox system in November. "All you have to do is go to the Xbox page on
our website and sign up to win," stated Dean Ku, VP of Marketing for RedOctane.
We're very excited about Microsoft's venture into video games and feel that this
contest is a good way to drum up excitement for the Xbox."
The Xbox features a 733MHz CPU, 256 audio channels, a front loading DVD-ROM
drive, a specially designed Nvidia Graphics Card, four controller ports, and
broadband modem. One of the biggest innovations is the inclusion of an 8 GB
internal hard-drive, which is a first in consoles. All of these features are
based on input that Microsoft received from over 5,000 gamers and game creators
making it a video game system that will be both easy to play and design games
for.
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