The Most Frequently Asked Questions. (last update: June 2004) 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 is presently working on a title that is concurrent with the evolution of the Quintology, but unique from our previous games. So even though it is unlike anything we've released so far, we think you'll agree it couldn't have come from anyone but Oddworld. Q:   When is the next Oddworld coming out for XBox? I absolutely loved Munch's Oddysee and I was just wondering when the next one was coming out. A:  The specific release date for our fourth game has yet to be finalized but we expect a 1st quarter 2005 date for both Xbox and PS2>Read the official press release Q: When is Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee going to be released? A: Munch's Oddysee was released with the launch of the Xbox in November 15th 2001. The European and Australian launch took place in March 2002. Q: Will Munch's Oddysee be on the PC or PS2? A: No. Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee is an exclusive Xbox title. Q: When will Oddworld merchandise be available? What about an Oddworld movie? A: Yes. The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants, the First Ten Years will be published by Ballistic Publishing for Sept/Oct 2004. 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: I need help with Oddworld games. Where can I go? A: The fan forums on www.oddworld.au.com 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. Q: Where can I find copies of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee & Abe's Exoddus? 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. 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 the game. 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.