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History
Xing incorporated was created on May 6,1992 with the idea of developing technological around the idea to push the karaoke business over the traditional limits, including online services, health services and mobile services. Their first product was called “JOYSOUND” was the one of the first on-line karaoke in the world, released the same year as the X2000 who would claim this title. The company continued to develop Karaoke systems and expanded their services, including, in 2006, a Karaoke social network called UTASUKI which would reach 10 million members in 2014. By 2008, Xing was already one of the major players in the Karaoke industry and decided to push their product offering even further by publishing their first game titled “JOYSOUND KARAOKE Wii” on the Nintendo Wii.
By 2013, Xing had already released a lot of Karaoke machines and related services, but the release of the Wii U gave them an unexpected possibility. One of the central components of any modern Karaoke system is the ability to interact with the device with an external device such as a tablet or a phone to perform song selection without having to wait for current selection to be over. The Wii U Gamepad was the perfect device to play this role, which made the Wii U an ideal video game system to build a commercial Karaoke system around. Having already developed a Karaoke software for the Wii, sealed the deal around this decision. This would allow to create a more affordable Karaoke system that could then be leased to business that would not typically consume such services due to the cost.
Xing also, being focus around health services, decided to focus this device around usage in retirement home, banquet halls and hotel.
Release
Release in May 2013, the JOYSOUND FESTA was initially priced at ¥1,580,000 including the main unit called the JOYSOUND FESTA Commander (JS-FWSP) and the dedicated rack (JC-FW1), which include a mobile rack, a mounted screen and speakers. The commander unit was also available by itself for ¥1,280,000. The system which required an online subscription gave access to 90,000 songs and some built-in games/activities such as quizzes, origami, Yoga, signing training, exercises, etc. It was made available to rent for ¥30,000 a month.
Demise
The JOYSOUND FESTA did fairly well, but with the discontinuation of the Wii U, Xing had to create an alternative solution. In 2018, they created the JOYSOUND FESTA2, a new device not based on a video game system.
Games
The system ran over a modified version of the Wii U operating system which didn’t allow for external games to be played.