My letter to Logitech begging them to develop Xbox FF wheel.
05-01-04 | 03:51 AM
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My letter to Logitech begging them to develop Xbox FF wheel.
In light of the OutRun II news, I just sent this to Logitech customer support. I suggest you all do the same....
======================
Dear Logitech,
Hello, my name is Xxxxx. I hope you're doing well. First of all, this letter concerns Microsoft's Xbox console but I do not know the proper channel to send this to, so to whomever receives it please redirect it to the department in charge of Xbox related gaming hardware.
I am writing this to you because a major concern on behalf of many Xbox owners who enjoy the variety of Xbox racing games currently on the system. I would like to ask Logitech if there has been any progress in either developing or announcing plans to develop a true Force Feedback racing wheel for the Xbox? My motivation to email this question to you stems from today's announcement from Sega that they are releasing OutRun 2 exclusively for the xbox. When I heard this today my reactions were somewhat bittersweet. As great as it would be to have such an awesome arcade game on the xbox, I was painfully reminded that there is, to this day, *STILL* no true FF wheel for the xbox.
I am literally *BEGGING* you guys to please do what you can to bring out a true FF wheel for the xbox! It is a crying shame that we are getting such high caliber games like Ralli Sport Challenge 2, Toca Pro-Race Driver 2, Burnout 3 and now Out Run 2, without being able to enjoy them on a proper wheel. I am writing this email to you on behalf of thousands of other Xbox racing game fans I know, who are equally disgusted at this situation.
PLEASE tell me you guys are doing *SOMETHING* to rectify this matter! We *NEED* an FF wheel for xbox! It is highly unfair that gamers who own Sony's Playstation 2 have the luxury of playing their racing games with your Driving Force FF wheel, while Xbox owners are restricted to using either a boring gamepad, or cheap excuses for wheels such as the MadCatz and Thrustmster variety. I cringe at the thought of playing any possible future killer Xbox apps like the Daytona USA or Sega Rally series without a proper force feedback wheel.
Logitech...I really hope you take my proposal seriously. If you only knew how many complaints I have read asking "Where are the FF wheels for Xbox?", I think you'd have a better appreciation of the urgency on your part to remedy this issue.
Thanks for listening and I hope to hear a reply from you soon. Have a blessed day,
Xxxxx
=========================
Hope they respond. This situation is getting out hand. The more I think about Sega possibly bringing out OutRun 2 and Daytona USA for Xbox and not being able to enjoy them as they are meant to be enjoyed....with a true Force Feedback wheel, the more pissed off I get! Infact, I'm just downright HOT right now!
It's not only Logitech I should really blame. Where are the other hardware manufacturers? Sure Thrustmaster and BRD are capable of developing one. Hell, even Sega themselves made a wheel of their own for the DC years ago, despite it being crapology. Miscrosoft is generally the crux of the blame though, since they themselves have a gaming hardware division and can easily develop an xbox version of their Sidewinder wheels. On second thought scrap that....just make an adaptor that allows Xbox games to recognize PC wheels and encourage racing game devs to implement the code! That would be a MUCH better solution and would save Logitch, Thrustmaster, etc loads of work! C'mon MS you guys really need to wake up! My blood BOILS at what we are being forced to put up with!
Trigger, first of all there are not 20 different wheels for Xbox. There are around 10 at the MOST. I went to E3 and tried numerous wheels. I also know a guy in the industry who owns nearly ALL of them at his home. I went there and spent hours sampling about 8 wheels and only the Mad Catz MC2 was halfway decent.
======================
Dear Logitech,
Hello, my name is Xxxxx. I hope you're doing well. First of all, this letter concerns Microsoft's Xbox console but I do not know the proper channel to send this to, so to whomever receives it please redirect it to the department in charge of Xbox related gaming hardware.
I am writing this to you because a major concern on behalf of many Xbox owners who enjoy the variety of Xbox racing games currently on the system. I would like to ask Logitech if there has been any progress in either developing or announcing plans to develop a true Force Feedback racing wheel for the Xbox? My motivation to email this question to you stems from today's announcement from Sega that they are releasing OutRun 2 exclusively for the xbox. When I heard this today my reactions were somewhat bittersweet. As great as it would be to have such an awesome arcade game on the xbox, I was painfully reminded that there is, to this day, *STILL* no true FF wheel for the xbox.
I am literally *BEGGING* you guys to please do what you can to bring out a true FF wheel for the xbox! It is a crying shame that we are getting such high caliber games like Ralli Sport Challenge 2, Toca Pro-Race Driver 2, Burnout 3 and now Out Run 2, without being able to enjoy them on a proper wheel. I am writing this email to you on behalf of thousands of other Xbox racing game fans I know, who are equally disgusted at this situation.
PLEASE tell me you guys are doing *SOMETHING* to rectify this matter! We *NEED* an FF wheel for xbox! It is highly unfair that gamers who own Sony's Playstation 2 have the luxury of playing their racing games with your Driving Force FF wheel, while Xbox owners are restricted to using either a boring gamepad, or cheap excuses for wheels such as the MadCatz and Thrustmster variety. I cringe at the thought of playing any possible future killer Xbox apps like the Daytona USA or Sega Rally series without a proper force feedback wheel.
Logitech...I really hope you take my proposal seriously. If you only knew how many complaints I have read asking "Where are the FF wheels for Xbox?", I think you'd have a better appreciation of the urgency on your part to remedy this issue.
Thanks for listening and I hope to hear a reply from you soon. Have a blessed day,
Xxxxx
=========================
Hope they respond. This situation is getting out hand. The more I think about Sega possibly bringing out OutRun 2 and Daytona USA for Xbox and not being able to enjoy them as they are meant to be enjoyed....with a true Force Feedback wheel, the more pissed off I get! Infact, I'm just downright HOT right now!
It's not only Logitech I should really blame. Where are the other hardware manufacturers? Sure Thrustmaster and BRD are capable of developing one. Hell, even Sega themselves made a wheel of their own for the DC years ago, despite it being crapology. Miscrosoft is generally the crux of the blame though, since they themselves have a gaming hardware division and can easily develop an xbox version of their Sidewinder wheels. On second thought scrap that....just make an adaptor that allows Xbox games to recognize PC wheels and encourage racing game devs to implement the code! That would be a MUCH better solution and would save Logitch, Thrustmaster, etc loads of work! C'mon MS you guys really need to wake up! My blood BOILS at what we are being forced to put up with!
Trigger, first of all there are not 20 different wheels for Xbox. There are around 10 at the MOST. I went to E3 and tried numerous wheels. I also know a guy in the industry who owns nearly ALL of them at his home. I went there and spent hours sampling about 8 wheels and only the Mad Catz MC2 was halfway decent.
05-01-04 | 02:00 PM
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Absolutely no offense to you, isamu, but if I received a letter like this I wouldn't read it. It is filled with errors, but more importantly, it is too long (for perspective, it is about 1.5 times as long as the Gettysburg Address). Your important points can be made in 2-3 sentences. Edit the letter down to 2 short paragraphs at most and resend it to increase your chance that it is actually read.
05-01-04 | 04:36 PM
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Re: My letter to Logitech begging them to develop Xbox FF wheel.
Originally posted by isamu
Trigger, first of all there are not 20 different wheels for Xbox. There are around 10 at the MOST. I went to E3 and tried numerous wheels. I also know a guy in the industry who owns nearly ALL of them at his home. I went there and spent hours sampling about 8 wheels and only the Mad Catz MC2 was halfway decent.
Trigger, first of all there are not 20 different wheels for Xbox. There are around 10 at the MOST. I went to E3 and tried numerous wheels. I also know a guy in the industry who owns nearly ALL of them at his home. I went there and spent hours sampling about 8 wheels and only the Mad Catz MC2 was halfway decent.
AlfaData has 4 different wheels.
Gamester had 2 different wheels.
Naki makes one.
Saitek makes 2 (although very similar) different wheels.
So that's 9 already and I haven't even gotten to Thrustmaster or Madcatz yet... both of which each make more than one or two different wheels. So to say there are 10 at MOST is inaccurate. I went to E3 as well.
05-01-04 | 10:09 PM
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From: Blu-Ray: We Don't Need No Stinkin' Petition
Originally posted by shawagg
Wow, where can I get one of these. Please sir a link!
Wow, where can I get one of these. Please sir a link!
05-01-04 | 10:50 PM
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Originally posted by shawagg
Wow, where can I get one of these. Please sir a link!
Wow, where can I get one of these. Please sir a link!
Save yourself the money...it WON'T work! Think I haven't tried? The game won't recognize it. It all starts with MS.
Originally posted by illennium
Absolutely no offense to you, isamu, but if I received a letter like this I wouldn't read it. It is filled with errors, but more importantly, it is too long (for perspective, it is about 1.5 times as long as the Gettysburg Address). Your important points can be made in 2-3 sentences. Edit the letter down to 2 short paragraphs at most and resend it to increase your chance that it is actually read.
Absolutely no offense to you, isamu, but if I received a letter like this I wouldn't read it. It is filled with errors, but more importantly, it is too long (for perspective, it is about 1.5 times as long as the Gettysburg Address). Your important points can be made in 2-3 sentences. Edit the letter down to 2 short paragraphs at most and resend it to increase your chance that it is actually read.
I actually should have done that in the first place. But I got stuck "in the zone" lol.
Originally posted by flashburn
I am amazed that isamu knows "thousands of other Xbox racing game fans". How do you keep track of them all?
I am amazed that isamu knows "thousands of other Xbox racing game fans". How do you keep track of them all?
05-01-04 | 11:15 PM
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From: Greenville, NC
Logitech will not be making an XBox FF wheel for the XBox. Instead they will just make a Dual Shock 2 to XBox converter since real video game drivers use the Dual Shock 2 controller anyway.
wusses.
wusses.
05-03-04 | 12:52 AM
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*********U P D A T E*********
**STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH***
My good friend Tom who works for the Logitech Wingman team was kind enough to shed some light on the current situation regarding their lack of development on an FF wheel. Below...
================
"Hello Isamu,
Long time no speak, indeed. I remember you... hope everything is alright with you, too.
Of course we would like to do a true FF wheel for the Xbox. Initially, Microsoft was totally uninterested and told us that if we can show 10 developers who are interested, they might consider it. Well, we rounded up those developers, and yet the whole thing went oozing on. At one point, we were talking to them about how this could be done; they seemed to be fishing for ideas without comitting to anything.
The problem, for us, is not really to make a wheel that would work. The problem is that the games need to support it; since the Xbox development environment doesn't really lend itself to "middleware" (like what we do for the PS2), we have to have Microsoft support this on their end, too. If they are not comitted to doing so, we can't force them to
Recently, all indications point to Microsoft having essentially abandoned anything new for the Xbox. It appears that they are working 100% on "next gen", which would be Xbox2 or whatever it's called when it comes out. Their interested in coming up with *anything* new for the existing platform has dropped down to zero...
So, to summarize - it doesn't look good for having a true FF wheel on the Xbox. Who knows, maybe we can get them to do that (or allow us to do it) for the Xbox2, but I wouldn't keep up my hopes for anything on the current platform. Sorry to disappoint you...
Eventually one needs to remind oneself that "it's just a game", and realign priorities on what else one does in life.
Have a good week (or end of weekend,
..tom"
=====================
My reply........
"Thanks for the candid reply Tom. That's sheds a lot of light on things. It's really too bad that we live in a world where game companies make the almighty $$ their top priority. But alas, this is all about business afterall, as well as politics to a certain degree. Oh well, what can you do. I can only hope that Sega thinks about putting the code in anyway, just in case you know, someone die hard like myself decides to spend big money to a third party person to develop a custom PC to Xbox adaptor that recognizes any PC FF wheel. Surely that can be done with enough time and resources, no? Talk to you later man"
======================
Oh well, Ce La'Vi
My good friend Tom who works for the Logitech Wingman team was kind enough to shed some light on the current situation regarding their lack of development on an FF wheel. Below...
================
"Hello Isamu,
Long time no speak, indeed. I remember you... hope everything is alright with you, too.
Of course we would like to do a true FF wheel for the Xbox. Initially, Microsoft was totally uninterested and told us that if we can show 10 developers who are interested, they might consider it. Well, we rounded up those developers, and yet the whole thing went oozing on. At one point, we were talking to them about how this could be done; they seemed to be fishing for ideas without comitting to anything.
The problem, for us, is not really to make a wheel that would work. The problem is that the games need to support it; since the Xbox development environment doesn't really lend itself to "middleware" (like what we do for the PS2), we have to have Microsoft support this on their end, too. If they are not comitted to doing so, we can't force them to
Recently, all indications point to Microsoft having essentially abandoned anything new for the Xbox. It appears that they are working 100% on "next gen", which would be Xbox2 or whatever it's called when it comes out. Their interested in coming up with *anything* new for the existing platform has dropped down to zero...
So, to summarize - it doesn't look good for having a true FF wheel on the Xbox. Who knows, maybe we can get them to do that (or allow us to do it) for the Xbox2, but I wouldn't keep up my hopes for anything on the current platform. Sorry to disappoint you...
Eventually one needs to remind oneself that "it's just a game", and realign priorities on what else one does in life.
Have a good week (or end of weekend
,..tom"
=====================
My reply........
"Thanks for the candid reply Tom. That's sheds a lot of light on things. It's really too bad that we live in a world where game companies make the almighty $$ their top priority. But alas, this is all about business afterall, as well as politics to a certain degree. Oh well, what can you do. I can only hope that Sega thinks about putting the code in anyway, just in case you know, someone die hard like myself decides to spend big money to a third party person to develop a custom PC to Xbox adaptor that recognizes any PC FF wheel. Surely that can be done with enough time and resources, no? Talk to you later man"
======================
Oh well, Ce La'Vi
05-03-04 | 01:28 AM
#14
DVD Talk Hero
Re: *********U P D A T E*********
Originally posted by isamu
**STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH***
My good friend Tom who works for the Logitech Wingman team was kind enough to shed some light on the current situation regarding their lack of development on an FF wheel. Below...
================
"Hello Isamu,
Long time no speak, indeed. I remember you... hope everything is alright with you, too.
Of course we would like to do a true FF wheel for the Xbox. Initially, Microsoft was totally uninterested and told us that if we can show 10 developers who are interested, they might consider it. Well, we rounded up those developers, and yet the whole thing went oozing on. At one point, we were talking to them about how this could be done; they seemed to be fishing for ideas without comitting to anything.
The problem, for us, is not really to make a wheel that would work. The problem is that the games need to support it; since the Xbox development environment doesn't really lend itself to "middleware" (like what we do for the PS2), we have to have Microsoft support this on their end, too. If they are not comitted to doing so, we can't force them to
Recently, all indications point to Microsoft having essentially abandoned anything new for the Xbox. It appears that they are working 100% on "next gen", which would be Xbox2 or whatever it's called when it comes out. Their interested in coming up with *anything* new for the existing platform has dropped down to zero...
So, to summarize - it doesn't look good for having a true FF wheel on the Xbox. Who knows, maybe we can get them to do that (or allow us to do it) for the Xbox2, but I wouldn't keep up my hopes for anything on the current platform. Sorry to disappoint you...
Eventually one needs to remind oneself that "it's just a game", and realign priorities on what else one does in life.
Have a good week (or end of weekend,
..tom"
=====================
My reply........
"Thanks for the candid reply Tom. That's sheds a lot of light on things. It's really too bad that we live in a world where game companies make the almighty $$ their top priority. But alas, this is all about business afterall, as well as politics to a certain degree. Oh well, what can you do. I can only hope that Sega thinks about putting the code in anyway, just in case you know, someone die hard like myself decides to spend big money to a third party person to develop a custom PC to Xbox adaptor that recognizes any PC FF wheel. Surely that can be done with enough time and resources, no? Talk to you later man"
======================
Oh well, Ce La'Vi
**STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH***
My good friend Tom who works for the Logitech Wingman team was kind enough to shed some light on the current situation regarding their lack of development on an FF wheel. Below...
================
"Hello Isamu,
Long time no speak, indeed. I remember you... hope everything is alright with you, too.
Of course we would like to do a true FF wheel for the Xbox. Initially, Microsoft was totally uninterested and told us that if we can show 10 developers who are interested, they might consider it. Well, we rounded up those developers, and yet the whole thing went oozing on. At one point, we were talking to them about how this could be done; they seemed to be fishing for ideas without comitting to anything.
The problem, for us, is not really to make a wheel that would work. The problem is that the games need to support it; since the Xbox development environment doesn't really lend itself to "middleware" (like what we do for the PS2), we have to have Microsoft support this on their end, too. If they are not comitted to doing so, we can't force them to
Recently, all indications point to Microsoft having essentially abandoned anything new for the Xbox. It appears that they are working 100% on "next gen", which would be Xbox2 or whatever it's called when it comes out. Their interested in coming up with *anything* new for the existing platform has dropped down to zero...
So, to summarize - it doesn't look good for having a true FF wheel on the Xbox. Who knows, maybe we can get them to do that (or allow us to do it) for the Xbox2, but I wouldn't keep up my hopes for anything on the current platform. Sorry to disappoint you...
Eventually one needs to remind oneself that "it's just a game", and realign priorities on what else one does in life.
Have a good week (or end of weekend
,..tom"
=====================
My reply........
"Thanks for the candid reply Tom. That's sheds a lot of light on things. It's really too bad that we live in a world where game companies make the almighty $$ their top priority. But alas, this is all about business afterall, as well as politics to a certain degree. Oh well, what can you do. I can only hope that Sega thinks about putting the code in anyway, just in case you know, someone die hard like myself decides to spend big money to a third party person to develop a custom PC to Xbox adaptor that recognizes any PC FF wheel. Surely that can be done with enough time and resources, no? Talk to you later man"
======================
Oh well, Ce La'Vi
Oh and was he basically dissing you with that priorities line?
