The Most Frequently Asked Questions. (last update: February 2005) Q:   When is Oddworld Stranger's Wrath coming out? A:  Our fourth title, Oddworld Stranger's Wrath is in stores on January 25th in the U.S. and March 3rd in Europe and Australia exclusively for the Xbox. Q:  My "Movies of Oddworld" Pre-order DVD won't let me play the Stranger's Wrath movie. What's up with that? A:   We've recently learned that there is a small issue with our recently released "Movies of Oddworld" Bonus DVD. The second chapter in the Oddworld Stranger's Wrath section, which is the opening movie from the game, will not play if you access it from the "Chapter Select" menu. To avoid this problem choose "Play All" from the menu, or watch the first chapter and then allow the second chapter to play normally afterward. Q:   Is the "Movies of Oddworld" DVD available as a preorder item in Europe? If so, what stores will have it? A:   We are currently not in production on those titles at this time. While EA originally intended the Movies of Oddworld DVD to be a pre-order item in the U.K., France and Germany, they have decided to use the DVD's in other various promotions. For more information, please contact your country's eagames.com website. Q:  Why isn't this website updated anymore? You used to have monthly updates in the fan section. There isn't anything new in the Oddworld Universe section either. Will you ever add the new characters in the Universe section? A:   We are a small developer without a full time webmaster. We try to do our best but game production takes a priority. In fact, we plan on stopping monthly updates for awhile. In the meantime, please visit our publishers websites. They have tons of information on our games. www.eagames.com for Oddworld Stranger's Wrath and www.xbox.com for Munch's Oddysee. Q: When will Oddworld merchandise be available? What about an Oddworld movie? A: "The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants, the First Ten Years" published by Ballistic Publishing is available online now. For more info:  www.ballisticpublishing.com Our artistic dreams definitely include motion pictures. These ideas began as motion pictures for us. When the films can be done the way we want to do them... only then we will move forward with production. Q:   Why can't I buy the Art of Oddworld book at Amazon.com or my local Barnes and Noble? A:  Ballistic Publishing is a small publisher in Australia. We chose to work with Ballistic for their high standards of quality. Unfortunately they are not able to supply big chain stores books unless they are purchased first. Q: Will Munch's Oddysee or Oddworld Stranger's Wrath be on the PC or PS2? A: No. There are no plans for a PS2 or PC version of these games. Q: I need help with Oddworld games. Where can I go? A: The fan forums on www.oddworldforums.net is an excellent source for information on solving puzzles, etc. The forums are independent from OWI. For Technical Support for Munch's Oddysee, www.xbox.com is your one stop resource for everything to do with Xbox. For technical help with Oddworld Stranger's Wrath, contact our publisher Electronic Arts at the customer support section of www.eagames.com. Q:   What ever happened to Hand of Odd, Munch's Exoddus and/or Squeek's Oddysee? A:   We are currently not in production on those titles at this time. Oddworld has just launched it's fourth game Oddworld Stranger's Wrath. Q: Where can I find copies of the previous Oddworld games? A: Unfortunately, we can't give you a good source to find our previous games in either PC or PSX format. With the change of publishers from GT to Infogrames our games have not been restocked in some time. We're usually not that big into endorsements, but Amazon.com is your sure bet on this one. both Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus are difficult to find in stores these days: some people buy/sell them on eBay too, so that's another source. Try the used game section of your local game store too. Munch's Oddysee is part of the Xbox Platinum Hits and can be found in stores. Good luck. Q: In the game I noticed that in the first game Abe and Mudokons have 4 fingers then in Abe's Exoddus they have only 3 fingers. What happened with the 4th finger? A: Well, it's a long story that needs to be told. So here it is... Japan has a strict discriminating policy against any simulated characters entering their country with four fingers. Historically, Japan has had a subclass of meat packing workers that were typically looked down upon in their society. In later days, the blatant displaying of a four fingered hand gesture, intentionally directed at another, came to mean that you were calling them a member of the meat packing sub class. Which, we understand, was not at all a compliment. It appears that the four finger connection with the meat packing class was due to work related accidents, but was so frequent that it came to symbolically represent the sub class. It seems as though this is a part of the Japanese history that some groups within Japan would like to see forgotten. Therefore, it is at great risk that you publish four fingered characters in Japan, as you may very likely end up in legal battles with a vociferous pressure group. This group claims that this type of representation is equivalent to and as degrading as the yellow star forced to be worn on Jews by the Nazi's during the Second World War.That is, it's offensive and degrading unless they can extort enough money out of you. Then it's all okay. Case in point: We were told that the Walt Disney Corporation is charged five million dollars a year by this group so that Mickey Mouse may live in Japan and retain his original four fingered design. Otherwise, old Mickey would need to see a surgeon and have something done about that insulting forth finger. The moral of this story is... if you want to pay, then it's ok. If you don't want to pay, then it's a horrible insult to our culture. In other parts of the world we have a word for these types of two-faced tactics. We call it extortion. If it is truly offensive and degrading, then don't allow it at all. But to allow it for a price... is to belittle the case altogether. It suggests that the real truth behind these groups is that they are using the darker moments in their own cultures' history as an excuse to coerce money out of content providers. Well, being that this is Oddworld, we felt that this seemed like a perfect addition to the Abe story. We thought it was ironically perfect that he was being discriminated against for being who he was. As the message came from Japan, "They don't like his kind here, with the sincere suggestion," Just chop off one of his fingers cause you don't have the money to pay up..." caused us to feel that we indeed needed to allow Abe to go through the suffering that goes along with being a poor slob at the bottom of the Food chain. Yup, we chopped off his finger so that the Japanese wouldn't get offended (or paid). He didn't like it one bit, but due to the fact that their ain't much he can do about it... we decided that he could donate his finger rather than us donating five million dollars. Such is life in Japan when you're a four-fingered meat packing worker. And that is how Abe lost his finger in Japan. He's still pretty pissed off about it, but we convinced him that with the amount of games sold in Japan, he still might be able to get his message through to their culture someday. As a true believer in his cause, he felt that the sacrifice of a finger was but a small price to pay in hoping to shed some light on discriminations and injustices the world over. Many fans are wondering about SoBe vending machines in Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee. What prompted the decision to include SoBe vending machines ? Yes, there will be a couple of Sobe vendos inside the final version of the game. SoBe was very excited about promoting Munch's Oddysee along with the SoBe / Xbox road show. SoBe liked the message of our content and very much liked the quirky humor and irony of our universe. The vendo's appeared in the game as an exchange for the opportunity to be a part of the sneak peak SoBe / Xbox road show that gave the public an early opportunity to put Munch and the Xbox in their hands. Whenever a co-promotional opportunity arises, Oddworld's first order of business is to see if there are any outstanding labor or environmental issues with the potential co-sponsor. Not only did SoBe come up clean in our search, but they have also demonstrated historic efforts to try to raise the nutritious quality of the average mass market soft drink.   - The End