Well if you’re here you probably have seen the front page of SoundBlaster.com
As many (if not all) of you are aware Windows 7 has officially launched.
Our social media maven Tawnee had me sit down and give a brief summary of where you can find the drivers and some other info about our prep for the Win 7 launch.
So take a look if you’re interested!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLERGMaqPGk
Ryan (AKA DigitalRonyn)
So we’ve been busy…oh so busy here in Sound Blaster land. As many (if not all of you) know we’re sponsors for Complexity Gaming…a legendary gaming brand in its own right. In recognition of that status and the launch of the Sound Blaster Arena we’re busting out a Complexity Edition version of the Arena headset so fans of coL can show the colors at events or at home.
Here’s a sneak preview of the coL edition of the Arena:
The headset will be shipping in mid Nov from Creative.com with a special launch promo (coL fans will love what we have cooking) and the team will begin wearing the headsets in competition starting in November as well. They already are using the standard edition Arenas in recent events including their recent ESL-I Championship win.
AND…if you want a shot at winning one of these bad boys at ship time. Hop on over to our Sound Blaster facebook page and sign up as a fan. We’ll be giving out 3 of these limited edition headsets to random fans at launch! So go…click..now!
The fans have been asking..and we’ve delivered.
As always…MUCH more to come!
Ryan (AKA DigitalRonin)
Hello Sound Blaster fans,
It’s certainly been a VERY busy past few weeks here so apologies for the lack of updates here. Should be back to our regular scheduled updating moving forward.
For starters we’ve officially launched the Sound Blaster Arena Surround gaming headset and it’s off to a fantastic start getting positive reviews from the public and press reviews should be hitting the web and print any day now. I’ll pop up the links here when they go live.
I’ve had many questions about “why” the Arena is “such a big deal”. And really I can sum it up with the fact that it’s the first headset to bear the Sound Blaster brand. A culmination of technology if you will. Really what the Arena reflects is the change in PC gaming in general. As PC gaming has evolved it has become more and more social to the point where single player games now are few and far between and the PC gaming core is mostly playing team or MMO based games.
With games going online and communication being a key factor to succeeding in those games, the Arena has been designed to excel in the “new-world” of PC gaming. In fact the Arena was originally designed to be the on-air headset for the CGS gaming league…which is where Silencer came to light since it would effectively eliminate the loud background crowd noise while the teams were competing in studio.
It just so happens that that technology ends up being perfect for those at home as well. We of course tweaked the design and came to market once the product was “ready”.
With the Sound Blaster Arena there’s now a solution for every type of PC gamer. Those on the go, those with massive rigs at home…or those of a casual nature just looking to get their game on. It’s the evolution of the internal sound card to the external world WITH the actual delivery device attached. It’s the new generation of sound “card”.
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I’ve also received a LOT of questions in regards to the World of Warcraft Wireless headset that we debuted back at Blizzcon. I know many of you out there are waiting in anticipation for the headset.
Without saying too much I can say we’re launching the headset “when it’s ready” taking a page from the company you all know and love…but I can say..we’re close…so close. If you managed to see the prototype at Blizzcon you haven’t seen ANYTHING yet.
Here’s a little mini faq to hit up some of the questions we’ve got in regards to the headset:
Q. When is it shipping?
A. Soon ™.
Seriously though. We’re putting polish and the touches on the headset that is going to truly put this headset in a class of its own. I really want to emphasize that this hardware is NOT a simple “slap the brand on it and sell a ton” project. It’s been painstakingly crafted to push design and technology. The wait will be worth it.
Santa should be packing these in his sleigh…
Q. Will there be pre-orders?
A. YES. Stay tuned to SoundBlaster.com for more info. There are definitely going to be pre-0rders. If you haven’t already signed up on the info page for the headset…I highly suggest you do. You’ll get the info the moment it goes live.
Q. Will the headset work with a laptop?
A. Absolutely it will. It’s ideal for desktops OR laptops. AND…it works with PC or MAC. So all you Apple lovers out there will have cutting edge gaming audio at your disposal …in wireless glory. Another big milestone for us here at Sound Blaster / Creative.
Q. What’s the story about THX TruStudio PC? How is it different than X-Fi tech?
THX TruStudio PC is built from the ground up to enhance a gaming , music and movies. It definitely pulls from our X-Fi experience but it isn’t just a rehash of the tech. We’ve employed different methods and refined many things. The Surround portion is particularly impressive. CMSS 3D is hands down the best headset / headphone surround out there right now…THX Surround takes this to another level. I’ve also particularly enjoyed the Bass enhancement in the THX suite as well. It makes even low end 2.0 speakers or built in laptop speakers sound respectable. No joke. It’s the real deal. When you couple this with a headset that has a nice set of drivers you’ll have all the bass you need. This tech is made to work within several applications and really adds to your entertainment experience. THX is synonymous with entertainment. All of us have at one time or another sat in a movie screen and had their hearts start to pump when that very familiar THX sound comes through the speakers (my favorite being the Simpsons version of it). We’re bringing that excitement to the desktop.
Q. So when does it ship again?
A. See first question above.
Q. Is there only a wireless version?
A. No. Both wireless and wired versions will be available at ship time.
That’s it for now.
Be sure to check out the Sound Blaster Arena if you’re looking for that competitive headset…you won’t be sorry!
And as always. MUCH more to come (very soon now).
Ryan (AKA DigitalRonin)
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Soooo..it’s been a bit since I’ve blogged here. Feels good to be back!
A lot has been brewing behind the scenes here at Creative and August is certainly shaping up to be a busy month indeed.
Right smack dab in the middle of the month I’ll be heading to QuakeCon to hang with the Fatal1ty crew and get my yearly overdose of first person fragging. Definitely looking forward to QuakeCon..especially with the emergence of Quake Live that has re-invigorated the FPS online scene and taken it to a higher level. And of course I’m sure everyone is going to be tuning in to get any new info about Rage and Wolfenstein as well.
And the following week it’s off to Blizzcon where we’ll have a booth to show off the latest and greatest to the adoring fans of the epic MMO, dungeon crawlers, and Space Marines. I definitely need to find some time to sneak out of the booth and hopefully get another dose of Starcraft 2 multiplayer action. Should be a lot of fun as I have guildees down in area as well and that always ends up being semi-dangerous (ok..just flat out dangerous).
What completely amazes me is by going to these two cons you get a taste of just how far PC gaming has come…and a great look at where it’s going moving forward.
We also have some pretty large announcements coming up in the middle of this month so stay tuned to SoundBlaster.com around mid-august. You definitely do not want to miss what we’ve got in store!
As always..more to come.
So I tweeted earlier about the game Prototype. I have to say this game surprised me 100%. A fantastic experience so far…even from the perspective I was able to download it directly and fire it up without loading up a DVD. That’s definitely a trend I’ve grown quite fond of.
So if you haven’t checked out Prototype yet…give it a whirl..and no I’m not getting paid to say that. It’s just awesome to see a great standout PC title that feels like it has a total unique spin to it. And the production value is strong as well.
Getting back to the hardware side of things. the Fat Pro MKII is ready to jump out the gate next week and we’re already starting to hear great things from some early seeds. The IGN review was up the day of E3. The hardest thing with headsets in general is the fit and finish. You’re NEVER going to make everyone happy. It’s really a very subjective thing…there are some people that swear by the head clamper headsets out there…that always makes me shake my head in wonder (I actually just think they’ve never used a REAL headset before…so they don’t know any better). And there are also people that love the MASSIVELY oversized headsets that look great with massive headbands…but at the end of the day end up being a lot more looks than actual performance. Just goes to show the massive variance in peoples tastes. But one thing was for sure…the audio number came out high, and for good reason. These things flat out blow away other headsets on the market when it comes to performance. What did you expect from a company that’s been making PC audio products for 25 years? We came to play.
I keep referring to some more announcements coming soon. I promise they’ll be worth it and we’ll be announcing something very shortly. When people see what we have up our sleeves I think they are really going to get it when we say “we don’t just SAY were about gaming…we prove it.” And we’ll keep proving it moving towards the back half of the year. Let’s just say the Sound Blaster brand is just getting started in headsets.
Also if you got a spare moment and want a chance to win a Fat Pro Titanium soundcard…hop on over to HERE and take the survey. Easy way possibly score a new sound card.
As always…more to come.
Hey there Blaster fans!
As you can see we’ve given our Soundblaster.com site a huge facelift. No botox here…we went for the straight surgical procedure.
The goal of the site is to make things a lot easier for us to talk to you..and you to talk to us. As well as make the things that you really want to get a hold of like my blog posts, and oh yeah..those drivers too (ok ok..I know you want the drivers more than my posts..but you can lie to me…and speaking of which…if you’re running Windows 7 give the beta drivers a whirl. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the performance and stability).
So the site isn’t just a prettification (thats my Bushism for today). It’s got a purpose as well. We’re still working on pieces behind the scenes so you’ll see more and more sections getting revamped and coming online with more and more info.
In other news just wanted to give team Complexity (who we’re an avid sponsor of) a shout out for their recent Counterstrike 1.6 match wins as well as the 3v3 WoW arena team showing some serious growth and skills at the last MLG match in Ohio. I’m thinking their RMP is going to be a force to be reckoned with as the season continues on.
As always..stay tuned there’s a lot more to come with some pretty awesome announcements we’ll be serving up over the next few weeks that are certainly going to turn some heads.
Ryan (AKA DigitalRonyn)
Back in the office after a long week at E3.
It’s always great to get out in front of the masses to get a feel for where the market is at.
I was completely blown away by the informal polling I was taking at the show. Informally about half the folks at our shows were gaming on laptops. The numbers have certainly been rising on the laptop side…but to see that many hands go up for that many shows, really shows that the market is shifting. Just a year or two ago and maybe it would have been 1 or 2 hands going up. Now it was 30 or 40.
Also met with a lot of press in regards to Silencer and the overall direction of the Sound Blaster and gaming headset lineup. I think the message is starting to get out there…Sound Blaster and Creative are raising the bar in headset tech.
We’ll have a peek of the next badboy in the lineup shortly here. So for those that are looking for a USB flavored headset we’ve got something you’re going to want to see.
On a side note…if you haven’t seen the trailer for the upcoming Star Wars Old Republic MMO…go HERE now. No seriously…do it. Amazing trailer. If the gameplay lives up to the trailer…this will be a hit.
Other amazingly cool stuff at E3:
- Got to play God of War 3. Amazing gameplay. They’ve outdone themselves.
- Bayonetta looks to be pretty cool.
- Can’t wait for Final Fantasy 13…it’s just cruel that they make us wait so long to get these over stateside.
More to come!
I’ve talked about it in a few videos on the web already, but here’s another explanation…
Thanks for letting me bend your ear (or eyes as it were).
