Xbox belts out the tunes

By PETER GRIFFIN

A year on from its New Zealand launch, Microsoft's Xbox gaming console is about to get more useful because of the arrival of the Music Mixer (which turns the console into a karaoke machine) and the Xbox Live online gaming service.

The release of the two new features has been timed to cash in on the Christmas buying season - the time when console makers can notch up a third or more of their annual sales.

Music Mixer, available from next week, costs $90 and allows Xbox owners to play songs with the lyrics displayed on their TV screens. It also allows them to strip the vocals from CDs, mp3 and WMA files so they can lay their own vocals on top.

Crooners will be able to record their efforts to the 8GB Xbox hard drive.

The Music Mixer comes with a microphone and a set-up disk which contains 15 popular karaoke tracks (YMCA and James Brown's I Feel Good among them).

More songs will be downloadable from the internet, but users will have to subscribe to Xbox Live to access them.

Music Mixer also allows for audio effects to be added to songs and visual 3D displays to accompany songs.

A slide-show function lets photos stored on the hard drive be displayed on TV sets.

Music Mixer arrives as the first major enhancement to the Xbox and conforms to Microsoft's plan to make the Xbox the "home entertainment hub".

The online gaming service Xbox Live will be available from December 4. The $219 launch pack features a headset for chatting over the internet with other gamers, a year's subscription to Live, a set-up disk and two multi-player games. Users must have a 256Kbps fast internet connection and broadband modem.

A lack of updated software means that New Zealand subscribers have to sign up to Xbox Live as Australian users and give an Australian address for the next few months, until a new dashboard including New Zealand settings is introduced in March.

Users are yet to find out how much it will cost to renew the Live subscription, which is payable by credit card. In the US a 12-month renewal sells for US$50 ($81.60).

The enhancements have given Microsoft an edge on arch-rival Sony, which plans to introduce an online gaming service later this year.

"We have no fear of comparison," said the New Zealand head of Microsoft's home and entertainment division, Wilf Robinson.

Sony still outsells Xbox with its Playstation 2 console, but the company is struggling to maintain the console's momentum against pressure from Microsoft.

It's answer to the Xbox is the PSX, a playstation console and personal video recorder in one. It will begin shipping - in Japan - by the end of the year.