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Lighting Up

amBX boss Neil MacDonald outlines the company's plans to bring new experiences to console gamers

GamesIndustry.biz We're sitting in a living-room set-up at the moment that's got lights all over the place, and a sofa that even rumbles - this is non-commercial kit, of course, but projecting forwards, for any Premiership footballers reading this, what would something like this cost?
Neil MacDonald

There are too many different versions - the Full Monty version, which is your home media room that's fully amBX'd, where you can immerse yourself totally in the experience with full colour LED lighting - the lights will cost a lot more than the amBX will, for a start, but the lighting controller product we have is around GBP 6000 to the end user.

You'll probably spend a bit more than that on lighting, but your average Premiership footballer wouldn't blink about that [smiles] - those are the kinds of installations we'll see going in early on.

However, for the console product it's the other end of the scale - we've got to get the price points down to something that's similar to the ones on PC - GBP 100 would be a good target for a set of lights, for example, but I don't know. We'll see. We think those are the price points are already buying peripherals - you've only got to look at how that's been driven by music games, accessories, DJ Hero and things like that. So we're in that ball park.

GamesIndustry.biz There is a bit of a question mark over how much consumers are happy to pay for peripherals at the moment -
Neil MacDonald

I think you have to be careful to make the distinction between a games peripheral and a console accessory. I think that's quite a different thing, and we're talking about console accessories.

GamesIndustry.biz But we're still talking about luxury items, in effect.
Neil MacDonald

It's an upgrade of your experience with games you already know - because it will work on games you already have with the automated effects. It'll be an upgraded experience on scripted games and new releases that are scripted - and it's an upgraded experience across your whole movie or downloaded content. We think that a lot of people will take that upgrade.

GamesIndustry.biz Have you spoken to retail about it yet?
Neil MacDonald

No, we're not the product guys, we're the technology behind it. amBX will be within whatever the product is.

GamesIndustry.biz So as a brand, you won't have any involvement in things like in-store demo rooms?
Neil MacDonald

Only in helping the retailers, if they wanted help from us, in communicating the message, or the best way to display it, but we won't be working directly with retailers in that sense - it'll be done through our partners.

GamesIndustry.biz Are there any specific releases coming in the next few months that people should be looking out for with relation to amBX?
Neil MacDonald

Yes, Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising - fully scripted, a fantastic game. And we're really excited about how that's going to be received with amBX. If anybody's interested in playing that, play it with amBX.

Neil MacDonald is CEO of amBX. Interview by Phil Elliott.

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