A secret internal X-Box document has leaked out of Microsoft's meetings with developers in Japan. Bloomberg news reports that this document reveals that the X-Box will not have any online games unitl its second year in Japan, supposedly to build up a larger installed base. However, this would put the X-Box two years behind the PS2 in Japan for online gaming.
This document also revealed some costs gamemakers will pay to Microsoft for making X-Box games. The document states that regardless of a game's retail price, software makers will be required to pay a 750-yen ($6) royalty to Microsoft per disc. Gamemakers will also need to pay an additional 300 yen toward the production costs of a game disc and 40 yen for packaging expenses. Sales, administrative and distribution costs are separate.
The 750-yen per disc royalty fee applies to the first 500,000 copies of a software title developed for the Xbox, the document said. The fee declines to as low as 540 yen a disc for gamemakers who produce more than 2 million.
Microsoft has developed two ``standard profit models.'' A game developer can expect a profit of 2,448 yen a copy for a game title carrying a retail price of 5,800 yen, which is slightly less than most PlayStation 2 releases. Developers can expect a profit of 3,058 yen at a retail price of 6,800 yen.
``The document used in yesterday's briefing wasn't for public release,'' said Kazuyuki Takada, a spokesman with the Xbox marketing department division at Microsoft. ``We can't comment on what was discussed in the meeting nor can we discuss specific schedules related to our strategy.''
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