Catapult Entertainment KKÂ
It was all glitz and glamour when a couple of press conferences heralded the launch of Catapult Entertainment Japan (CEKK) in February 1996 at the Hotel Okura. Groaning tables of food, lots to drink, a full complement of VIPS and over 200 press and 30 photographers attended the first event. The blue chip roster of companies throwing their muscle behind the venture made it a "must have" ticket -- Catapult (Japan) investors include Nissho Iwai (the 6th largest trading company in the world and operator of Nifty Serve with over 1.7 million subscribers ); NTT (Ma-san Bell); Recruit (Employment publication and services); Orix (the largest lessor of capital equipment); Lawson (largest convenience store retailer) participated in the event . A separate, but equally lavish party, intro'd the company to the Shoshinkai distributors, software publishers and reps from Sega and Nintendo.
Yutaka Karasawa -- 26 year veterean of Intel with a background in multimedia, was tapped to be the president of the fledgling company. He is responsible for building CEKK into the dominant game network in Japan.
XBAND for the Nintendo Super Famicom
The official launch of XBAND for the Super Famicom (Nintendo) kicked off this May with a marketing campaign designed to get the word out big time. Subway posters, print ads in gamer publications, counter cards and posters at retail and interactive kiosks at Lawson's (a convenience store chain with 6,000 locations throughout the country) make up the integrated program. CEKK will also run television advertisements... they plan to run the ads during the X-Files, one of Japan's most popular shows.
XBAND Smart CardsÂ
Those interactive kiosks we spoke of ...well, they're used to dispense the XBAND smart cards Patterned after the European phone cards, these cards with computer chips will be the key to access the XBAND Network. XBANDers will merely purchase a card at Lawson's for approximately 2000 yen (about $20).
Features of XBAND for Super Famicom
Just like the U.S. version, XBAND for the Super Famicom offers
Electronic messaging called X-Mail (complete with internet gateway)
Bandwidth (General info newspaper)
XBAND News
Unlike the rag-tag group of gamer hipsters who create the XBAND news each day here in the states, CEKK has hired a special production company to write XBAND News. These professional writers, called DJs on the Network, are each game-specific and are responsible for creating one day's news and responding to member quesstions and requests via x-mail. Here's a sample schedule:Â
MondaySuper Mario Kart DJ (SMK)TuesdayMacho Man (Super Fire Pro Wrestling X) DJWednesdaySSF2 DJThursday & FridayCustomer's emailSaturdayCelebrity experiences with XBANDSundaySpecial customer events
These DJ's also receive about 150 email messages per day. Seems the SMK DJ is a woman. Evidently her X-Mails are mostly questions asking about her -- age, interests, etc. Hmmmm, some things just transcend the geographical borders! Although there was that one player who was looking for a "friend 20 years old and with blood type A." Hmmmmm, again.
Guardian Angels, XBAND Style
CEKK started a club called the "XBAND Angels" to keep XBANDers on the straight and narrow. As with any online service there's a certain amount of informal policing to ensure that members don't, well, you know... a little spamming here, a nasty exchange there... CEKK hand-selected 8 players as the official club members. Much to their surprise, membership exploded to about 150 followers. The "XBAND Angels" now answer questions other XBANDers have, creating an unofficial customer support department. One particular member, code name "Boston," speaks English and has become the de facto leader of the group. He's even had his own business cards made up!
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