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MICROSOFT TO LICENSE CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY'S EAX AUDIO EFFECTS PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY FOR DIRECTX

Creative's Powerful Environmental Audio Sound Design Tools Selected for Microsoft Multimedia API

REDMOND, Wash. - June 9, 1999 - Microsoft Corp. today announced a licensing agreement with Creative Technology Ltd. for a number of recording studio-quality audio effects found in Creative's Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX), an application-programming interface (API) used to add environmental sound effects to 3-D games. The licensed effects include flange, chorus, EQ and environmental reverberation.

Microsoft plans to incorporate these EAX effects into its next version of the Microsoft DirectX API, the multimedia technology behind the Windows operating system. Creative's EAX API is a popular environmental audio standard among developers, and is supported in over 50 currently-shipping PC games. Combining EAX technology from Creative with applications written to the Microsoft DirectSound and Microsoft DirectMusic APIs will allow developers to take audio to a new level of realism in multimedia applications, encouraging the proliferation of high-quality PC audio.

"Adding the power of Creative's outstanding EAX audio technology to DirectX offers developers much greater control of environmental sound parameters that intensify the gaming and entertainment experience," said Kevin Bachus, group product manager for DirectX at Microsoft. "This collaboration will enable software developers to achieve a fidelity and production quality that previously required a well-equipped recording studio, while delivering incredibly rich and realistic multimedia sound to personal computer users."

"Today's deal is a further step in our plan to make EAX a broad and open standard," said George Thorn, director of Developer Relations at Creative. "This licensing agreement with Microsoft will share some of the core functionality of EAX and will encourage more developers to explore the art of creating compelling, immersive audio environments on the desktop."

"The combination of EAX technology and DirectX will further solidify EAX as a popular PC audio standard moving forward," Thorn continued. "Although today's deal has no direct financial impact on Creative, it is a positive endorsement of EAX. The proliferation of EAX technology and high-quality PC audio will also, we believe, inevitably increase sales of hardware audio accelerators such as Creative's Sound Blaster Live! family of products."

Creative Technology (NASDAQ:CREAF), the world's leading provider of multimedia products for the PC, was founded in Singapore in 1981. Creative has earned global leadership status for its innovations in interactive audio, graphics, PC-DVD, video and communications technology.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft, DirectX, Windows, DirectSound and DirectMusic are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Other products and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft's corporate information pages. For more information on Environmental Audio titles, please visit Creative's Web site at http://www.creative.com/eaudio/.

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