Visual First adds TiVi voice feature to Soundness, a multi-user dog-rearing game
Released on: April 28, 2008, 4:39 am
Press Release Author: TiVi
Industry: Telecommunications
Press Release Summary: Latvia, Riga - April 28, 2008
Press Release Body: Soundness, one of the most successful and modern online games made in Japan, has recently added a VoIP-based, dynamic voice conference technology. The game\'s developer Visual First Co., Ltd., headquartered in the Japanese city of Tanabe, chose to include the voice technology by Tilts Visiem (TiVi.com), an experienced maker of SIP-based softphones.
Tilts Visiem is known in Japan via its local integrator and sales partner in Asia, Coo-TV, a company that delivers audio and video content to PCs and mobiles. Coo-TV and TiVi\'s partnership consists of developing, customising and implementing audio and video conference systems.
Hiroshi Watanabe, the leading director of Soundness at Visual First Co., Ltd., said: \"Soundness is our innovative game for people who like to communicate while realising their dream of owning a dog and participating in adventure-filled stories. Visual First now lets the gamers experience an audio environment and completely immerse themselves in the activity\". Hiroshi Watanabe was an important contributor to the famous Final Fantasy game (parts I, II, III and VII) made by Square Co., Ltd.
The game of Soundness, developed primarily for the Japanese market, lets its users cooperate and compete with each other, while a distinguishing feature of the game is interaction with dogs, such as feeding, training, going hunting or simply walking the pets. Visual First Co., Ltd., has added an entirely new level to pet-interaction games: the dogs living in Soundness can be hybridised or bred by their virtual owners, in order to achieve the perfect type of dog and even obtain a certificate of pedigree.
\"TiVi\'s dynamic voice communications engine adds a new degree of realistic environment to the role-playing game,\" said Ivo Kutts, CEO of Tilts Visiem. \"The multimedia game development market is profitable but also competitive, which means that the authors have to continue to add features, thus attracting the interest of new users and enchanting them again and again with extra surprises,\" Ivo Kutts added. \"Today\'s multi-user games require seamless integration of talking, surround sound and video to create a realistic feel of presence for the players at each moment.\"
In a last year\'s presentation of Soundness in Tokyo, it was revealed that the game creates a virtual world inhabited by players and their virtual dogs. Based on real-world facts about dog breeding and training, the personality and skills of each virtual dog depend on its parents\' virtual \"DNA\". The players of Soundness can earn points, acquire and spend cybermoney, but they can also enhance their avatars by using real money. Ultimately, Visual First Co., Ltd., will be creating a detailed virtual \"town\" with buildings and businesses that would be bought and sold.
\"It is exciting for us to create, manage and offer our users a whole network-based world with expanding activities, where the users can always discover new intriguing secrets,\" Hiroshi Watanabe explained. \"Visual First Co., Ltd., is happy to announce that the TiVi technology now allows not just playing and watching but also talking to and hearing the fellow players of the Soundness community.\"
About the companies
Visual First Co., Ltd. (visualfirst.co.jp) is a Japanese company that develops multi-player online games with in-game advertising and shopping for both virtual and real-life merchandise.
Coo-TV.com (www.coo-tv.com) is a provider of global telephone calling and a range of mobile video-on-demand technologies for PC and mobile/PDA platforms.
Tilts Visiem (TiVi.com) is a Latvia-based company developing and implementing client-side and server-side VoIP software and video streaming systems since 2003. Its key product is TiVi Phone, a customisable voice and video softphone for various PC and mobile platforms.
For more information, contact: info@visualfirst.co.jp info@coo-tv.com info@tivi.com