Online Gamers Get Coolest Experience Ever With ICE

- Smart Internet Technology CRC shows that cool gaming is just the tip of the ICEberg with next generation voice communications

Sydney - May 18, 2006 - Smart Internet Technology Cooperative Research Centre today announced the completion of trials conducted at Telstra's Launceston Broadband eLab, testing the latest in online gaming audio, Immersive Communications Environment (ICE). ICE is a sophisticated audio service that offers the ability for groups of people to communicate online naturally. With communication between people playing a growing role in some of the world's most popular games such as World of Warcraft, and Counter-Strike Source, ICE is poised to drastically enhance the online gamers' experience and capture a slice of the booming $32.6 billion interactive entertainment industry.

Gamers can currently communicate verbally through tools such as text chat and walkie-talkie style audio solutions, ICE changes the playing field by enabling the first realistic, scalable voice communication tool of its kind. It offers players the means to communicate realistically with fellow gamers, matching the voices of other players with their visual cues. For example, someone closer in the virtual space will sound louder, and whispering will become more audible on approach, bringing geography and landscape into the communications tactics. A major feature of ICE is that it can scale to crowded environments, such as cities with thousands of players, which are common in online games such as World of Warcraft. Players can walk into these online cities and hear the buzz of activity and listen in on conversations in common areas where people congregate to meet. This can be done over current consumer broadband connections.

By downloading a small program and accessing the game via an ICE enabled server, ICE promises to lift great games to an exceptional level. Results from the trials reported that 74 per cent of those who participated either agreed or strongly agreed ICE enhanced their gaming experience. Sixty per cent of the participants indicated ICE improved their gaming performance and they prefer it over "walkie-talkie" style communications tools that don't have the same natural, ease of use as ICE. Participants cited the most outstanding strategic benefits of ICE as audible location of enemy, free hands for game control and improved team interaction.

Darrell Williamson, CEO, Smart Internet said, "Information group ABI Research is predicting the game industry will grow from $32.6 billion in 2005 to $65.9 billion in 2011, driven primarily by online gaming and speedy growth of the portable and mobile phone gaming markets.

"The Launceston trial has demonstrated that gamers prefer ICE enabled games over current traditional ones and are further willing to pay a premium to play ICE enabled games. ICE will provide significant market differentiation for game developers, publishers and service providers looking to increase market share and revenues."

Tony Oetterli, Manager, Telstra e-Lab, said that participants indicated ICE delivered a standard of voice communications in the games as realistic as the graphics of modern games.

"Trial results show that initially, the trial participants were overwhelmed at the realistic audio experience, especially in crowded virtual environments where they could hear several voices at once. But then they were thrilled with the competitive, strategic edge it gave them citing positives such as being able to listen in on competitors or form teams with other players."

Paul Boustead, Project Leader, Smart Internet added "one participant had very little gaming experience prior to the trials and ended up one of the biggest advocates of ICE. He now plays about three to four times a week and loves the ICE experience over other voice communication applications and the strategic advantages he gains from it."

Hard-core PC game enthusiasts are constantly upgrading their machines with lightning-fast memory and the most advanced graphics cards to get an edge in multiplayer online games. Boustead predicts that gamers will jump at the chance to further enhance their experience by using ICE, especially since new generation consoles are providing online features to make playing with others over the Internet easier and more enjoyable.

The possibilities for the application of ICE extend beyond the realm of online games to personal communications, education, business meetings and conference calls as well as integration into future games' software.

The ICE project is a great example of how the Smart Internet Technology CRC enables collaboration between large and small organisations facilitating research and development that creates benefits and commercialisation opportunities in a broad range of industries.

The Immersive Communications Environment (ICE) project was developed by the Smart Internet CRC with partners Telstra Corporation and the University of Wollongong and is now in the early stages of commercialisation.

ICE will be presented during the 2006 CRC Conference "CRCs making an impact" to be held May 17 - 19 in Brisbane. More information on the conference can be found at www.crca.asn.au.