Not directly amBX related but it is worth wondering whether the amBX team would have been part of the 6000 jobs and possibly the closing of the project if they hadn’t managed to spin out of Philips at the end of last year. It may have meant all of us that love amBX had no new games to play with or no new software / hardware to look forward to.

Obviously a shame for all those employees that are losing their jobs but I am thankful amBX is no longer included with Philips so that we can look forward to new things, especially following the release of te SDK!

One of the games industries main development news portals for the UK has published a rather nice interview with the new CEO of amBX; Neil MacDonald. The article talks about amBX spinning out of Philips with VC investment, what the future holds and how they are working to promote the technology.

A snippet can be found below along with a link to the full interview:

What is the game development industry’s attitude towards amBX at the moment?

Cooke: Whenever we demo amBX to developers, the first question we get asked is, “How can I get this in my living room?” The development community has always seen and understood the vision we have of amBX as an innovative technology driving future entertainment experiences.

Any present concerns have always been around implementation time, and cost and hefty licence contracts. We are now in a position to change that and are currently developing a partner program which will mean developers can download the amBX SDK from a dedicated partner website with a forum and on-line tutorials. Our goal is to provide a best in class SDK and supporting tools.

MacDonald: I sense that the industry is waiting to see how we do now we are out from Philips. I also sense that there is recognition that we could now be better to do business with and it’s certainly my intention to prove that.

To read the full interview head over to the Developmag page here!

A quick update for everyone that might not have seen it; amBX is no longer part of Philips. Originally a project from the Philips Technology Incubator it now looks like amBX is going its own way having successfully spun-out of Philips and become a limited company in its own right thanks to VC funding.

amBX UK Limited will retain its strong ties with Philips (who are still a licensee of the technology) and will now work to further push the products into the gaming, tech, movie and films markets. It may also mark the start of collaborations with public venues so who knows, perhaps some of the new cinemas will have amBX experience included in them?

Hopefully this will signal more autonomy and a greater amBX presence in the world (which would only be a good thing) so fingers crossed for them.

If you want to view the full press release you can try clicking this link here (hopefully it will work).

Well hello there! Welcome to this, my brand new blog dedicated to my awesome new piece of kit; a Philips amBX Premium Kit. For those that don’t know what im rattling on about it is a peripheral kit for your PC that includes speakers, ambient lights, fans and a rumble pad. This means that for games and music you experience new effects and increase the level of immersion. To sum it up really think of a shooting game with the rumble pad going off if something explodes near by, or a racing game with the fans turning off if you drive really quickly and “get air” off of a jump. Combine that with changing light effects depending on the environment like nice red, orange and yellow lights for a sunset or bright green for a field all the way down to dark and muddy browns and red for underground dungeons.

That pretty much sums it up in terms of what it is but this blog will hopefully guide you around my world, the things i’m doing with my kit and what some of the latest developments are coming out of amBX HQ i.e. Farcry2 and Brother in Arms!! Those games should kick ass with an amBX hooked up to them, I really can’t wait.

Anyway enough rambling for now…lets get down to business and make some content that will give you something to read and watch. Adios for now!