18 months ago, Philips came to our offices to show us a new product, amBX. Comprising desk speakers, a sub-woofer, units which put out coloured light and a fan, it was designed to enhance PC games with effects that were intended to enhance the experience of playing, blowing air into your face as you sprinted in Crysis, flashing red and yellow as we died in an explosion.

Extending the game into the peripheral senses added something new to the experience but after Philips left, the setup rather fell into disuse. We had some software issues with the drivers, the speakers got disconnected and their wires tangled – and no games supported it, anyway. And despite the considerable effort Philips had gone to get it off the ground, the whole project seemed to mothball.

Now, amBX is back. On the first anniversary of amBX’s rebirth as a company entirely independent of Philips, we spoke with CEO Neil MacDonald about a year in which the technology has been rethought and refocused. It’s now being used as an automated lighting system for schools for the deaf and even at worship events in Wembley Arena. But he still has ambitions for gaming – at the end of 2010, it will be available for PS3 and, the company hopes, 360. But when there’s always a better high definition TV or surround sound system to buy, could amBX be a luxury beyond most gamers’ ambitions?

How has amBX’s inception into market been going?
It’s totally changed since we span out of Philips. We’re totally independent, nothing to do with Philips. The first thing we did is to release an SDK for PC which we give away. At GDC in March we were demonstrating it and giving it away, and that went down really well. A lot more developers became aware of us and had it in their hands so they could start to see what it was about. We added into the SDK a simulator so you can see on your screen the immersive effects you’ve created. It gave the development community a toolset at last, something to get their hands on and play with, learn and think about.



Why hadn’t Philips already done that?
While we were at Philips we couldn’t have done that. There was an army of lawyers which said we couldn’t. I’m exaggerating this to make a point, but this is a big, multinational company, and giving free software away with IP in it to game developers results in, “Are you mad?” But we’re not mad, because that’s the business model – it’s free to the game developers and hopefully at some point free to the movie-makers, and we make our money with people actually buying the products and devices.

What about the actual product that people will buy?
In July we announced that we would be working with Mad Catz as a licensee for accessories for the PC, and we are now in discussion with others for console accessories to deliver amBX effects that will come on to the market before the end of 2010. That’s quite a while, but the game development cycle is quite a while, too, because we’re looking for some major releases to support the launch of amBX on PS3 and/or possibly 360. That’s a major turnaround.

How have game makers reacted to amBX?
The SDK went down really well because it’s easy. Before, to get amBX in a game, you had to get the developers to want to do it, the publisher had to want to and it was a big ask. We’ve taken most of the ask away. In fact, there’s an MMO that soon to launch with full amBX support that was implemented in just a few hours using our SDK. It’s not been announced yet, so I can’t reveal it. Codemasters has released Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, which features native amBX support, with the lights, turning the small monitor and creating visual effects all around you. You also get the rumble effects for explosions and the fan effects for blast shockwaves or fast motion.

We were at GDC Europe, E3, Gamescom – we’re spending an awful lot of time speaking to publishers and developers and the response from them has been fantastically encouraging. When the economy turned around at the very time we wanted to persuade them to adopt us I thought it was going to be a hard job. But what they’re saying is, “When are you going to be on console?” They don’t want to just do special stuff for PC any more.