Creative buys Sensaura :(

[az]

Creative has bought Sensaura, maker of the only competitive 3D sound codec, which is used by the whole competition.

I see another quasi-monopoly building up.

AZ

[Gurm]

Good. Sensaura's codec sucked ass.

I know, it's an unpopular position to take. But you have to remember that I'm a victim of the Santa Cruz debacle, where NONE of my 3D sounds worked in ANY game from Bioware, and they NEVER fixed it and just blamed it on Sensaura for the better part of 2 years.

So Sensaura can suck my nuts. Maybe their shitty code will cause Creative to die a horrible death, and kill two birds with one stone.

- Gurm

[az]

That would be great, but I'd prefer being able to get a soundcard from someone that's NOT creative, and rather with a mediocre 3d codec I don't have to use than without one. And not because I need 3d sounds (I'll take 2 good speakers or a good headphone over 5 poor speakers any day, and I can't afford 5.1 good speakers), but because it's a selling point that helps keep the competition alive. There won't be much market between on-board sound that's getting more and more feature-rich and creative, except for musicians. Oh well, I've bought musicians' sound cards since '97, so I think I'll just stick to that.

AZ

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by Gurm
Good. Sensaura's codec sucked ass.

I know, it's an unpopular position to take. But you have to remember that I'm a victim of the Santa Cruz debacle, where NONE of my 3D sounds worked in ANY game from Bioware.

- Gurm

Of course this depends on giving a rip about 3D sounds and/or Bioware in the first place, which I and many other people don't.

Not to mention that when I have a problem with the software products from just ONE manufacturer the hardware is the last place that gets the blame.

Dr. Mordrid

[K6-III]

The problem with the Santa Cruz is that Turtle Beach didn't feel like investing the resources to actually update the Sensaura build.

I see this turn of events as absolutely horrible.

Well, guess it is time to hope for QSound to make a go at it...

[TransformX]

You still remember that nVIDIA got Aureal's engineers and it was probably thanks to them that nforce chipsets have the best onboard sound ever. Who knows, nVIDIA might give Creative a run for their money. At least I hope so.