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MILPITAS, Calif., - March 24, 2004 - Creative Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ: CREAF), a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for PC users, today announced GameCODA® 2.0, the newly enhanced comprehensive cross platform audio middleware solution for console and PC game developers. Creative also announced new enhancements to its Interactive Spatial Audio Composition Tools (ISACT) for PC and console game development. Creative and Sensaura, a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative, will demonstrate this new system in exhibit #238 at the San Jose Convention Center and at the Hilton and Towers Hotel, Suite 926, during the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California from March 24-26.
GameCODA 2.0 & GameCODA Plus
| The original GameCODA 1.0 system was released by Sensaura at the 2002 Game Developers Conference and quickly became a well-established cross platform audio solution that aided in the development of published and future titles from Lionhead Studios, Activision, Codemasters and SCi. GameCODA 2.0 builds upon this scalable, modular solution by adding support for Dolby® ProLogic® II encoding, OpenAL® compatibility and real-time auditioning, as well as providing enhanced CAGE™ Producer content management tools. GameCODA 2.0 will also have future support for DTS® Interactive encoding for the Sony® PlayStation® 2 game console. |
GameCODA 2.0 simplifies the challenge of managing audio assets and rendering audio on all of the leading game consoles in the market today. Instead of adopting a "lowest common denominator" approach, the CAGE Producer content management tools that are built into GameCODA 2.0 enable audio to be delivered consistently and optimally on each platform, with the minimum of effort required on the part of the developer.
GameCODA 2.0 signals the first time that applications written in OpenAL language can run on game consoles as well as the PC, and with advanced audio functionality. For PC game development, GameCODA 2.0 is being optimized to produce the most compelling audio playback on the award-winning Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® family of sound cards.
"We were very impressed with the depth of features that GameCODA provides to the audio in our games," said Tim Rance, director at Lionhead Studios. "In particular, its extremely full coverage at the hardware layer allowed us to build a complex and rich audio environment for our first Xbox® game title, "Fable™", being published by Microsoft this summer."
GameCODA Plus allows developers to add on one or more modules that complement GameCODA 2.0. Creative's ISACT Production Studio and Fonix voice recognition technology are both available to choose from.
"Creative has long been the leader in audio on the PC, and our acquisition of Sensaura enables us to broaden our expertise to game consoles," said George Thorn, director of multimedia and developer relations at Creative. "The union of Creative's ISACT audio composition and playback system together with Sensaura's GameCODA 2.0 and CAGE Producer content management system results in an extremely powerful cross-platform audio solution, enabling game developers to create truly compelling interactive audio experiences on all the leading game consoles as well as PCs."
"We are happy to be associating our voice recognition technology with GameCODA, a product representative of high quality audio," said Tim K. Hong, vice president of Fonix. "Our high-quality solution which allows game developers to implement voice commands without requiring large amounts of memory nicely complements Sensaura's offering."
GameCODA 2.0 is fully compatible with solutions from leading middleware providers such as Criterion Software, NDL, Havok, Fonix and Vicarious Visions. This powerful audio creation solution is available for major console gaming platforms such as Microsoft® Xbox®, Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube® and for PCs, with support being extended to Macintosh OS X and Pocket PC as well as to next generation gaming hardware.
ISACT
| Originally announced at the 2003 Game Developers Conference, Creative ISACT introduced a revolutionary way for composers to create and render interactive 3D content. The ISACT Production Studio provides a powerful authoring tool for creating interactive, multi-channel, 3D spatialized music and sound effects for games and other multimedia applications. Creative has enhanced ISACT for the 2004 Game Developers Conference by adding additional run-time features and web page functionality. |
The ISACT Production Studio places powerful audio creation capabilities in the hands of sound designers, enabling them to interact directly with audio to determine sound variables in a clean, professional and easy-to-use interface. The web plug-in delivers interactive sound to websites, creating an immersive web surfing experience for the end user.
ISACT is slated for availability in May of this year, either as a stand-alone system for PC audio development, or as an add-on module with GameCODA Plus for cross-platform audio capability. For more information about Creative audio creation technologies, visit https://developer.creative.com.
About Sensaura
Sensaura (www.sensaura.com) is at the forefront of audio research, both in the PC and the consumer electronics market. Over 60% of the PC audio chip market worldwide license Sensaura's 3DPA technology. In addition, Sensaura provides audio middleware to the game developer market, supporting all the major platforms including the Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube platforms. Sensaura is a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd.
About Creative
Creative (Nasdaq: CREAF) is a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for PC users. Famous for its Sound Blaster® sound cards and for launching the multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment on the PC platform with products like its highly acclaimed NOMAD® Jukebox MP3 player. Creative's innovative hardware, proprietary technology, applications and services leverage the Internet, enabling consumers to experience high-quality digital entertainment - anytime, anywhere.
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This announcement relates to products launched in the United States. The product names, prices and availability are subject to change without notice and may differ elsewhere in the world according to local factors and requirements. GameCODA, Sound Blaster, Audigy and OpenAL are registered trademarks of Creative Technology Ltd. in the United States and/or other countries. NOMAD is a registered trademark of Aonix and is used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective property owners.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Karen Hoskins
Creative Labs, Inc.
(408) 546-6275
khoskins@creativelabs.com