By Joe Little

Sales of Xbox consoles in Japan have been lagging recently, causing the system to fall to last place behind the PlayStation 2 and Gamecube overseas. Microsoft has no plans of allowing it to go the way of the Dreamcast in U.S., however, as they claim Japan will continue to remain a major market for the Xbox in the future.

New things coming for the Xbox in Japan include [i]Halo 2[/i] on November 11, followed by [i]Blinx 2: Battle of Time and Space[/i] and the [i]Xbox Platinum Pack 3[/i] a week later. In addition, a new video chat service has been developed and will release on November 25.

[i]Platinum Pack 3[/i] will contain an Xbox console, four games ([i]Blinx 2: Battle of Time and Space, Halo, Top Spin, and Project Gotham Racing 2[/i]), the DVD playback kit, and two months of [i]Xbox Live[/i]. The pack will cost around $173, with [i]Blinx 2[/i] alone being $43.

The video chat service will allow up to four people to chat via the [i]XBox Live[/i] interface. Priced at $62, the set will come with a headset and camera, as well as year subscription to [i]XBox Live[/i].