Philips' amBX starting out with game mods

Although Philips' goal is still to encourage the development of games programmed specifically with amBX in mind, the company has spent the last year thinking about how to satisfy the consumerâs more immediate need for content.

Towards that end, the company began creating mods to existing software last September and has already released five mods out into the market for games such as Unreal Tournament and Quake.

"When we took that mod to Quakecon we realised that the consumers don't care how they get the effects or whatâs causing it, they just want it to do something," Jo Cooke, the chief marketing officer of Philips' amBX division, told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview.

While noting that consumers will become more discerning as time goes on, Cooke thinks that - for the time being - as long as everything works when it gets triggered, it satisfies the need for content.

"We know the capability of our software and we know that it can do these amazingly brilliant things, but the consumer doesn't need to know that, and right now doesn't care."

"Right now what we need to do is transfer what we think we're capable of doing into something that's simple for the consumer," Cooke said.

According to Cooke, there's much more content available that works with amBX by default than even Philips realised.

"...[P]eople started buying kits and immediately they're listing all the games their kits work with that we didn't even bother to mention. Consumers tell me that Crysis works, and that EVE Online works..."

As announced at CES, Ubisoft's upcoming shooters Far Cry 2 and Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway will showcase the amBX system. Philips is also working with Ubisoft to add support to the publisher's back catalogue.

GameIndustry.biz' interview with Philips' Jo Cooke will be published soon.