Dolby Digital 5.1 Turns Up the Volume for SEGA's Holiday Xbox Line-Up
Posted by Ben on Tuesday, August 20 2002

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 20, 2002--

Six channels of Dolby surround sound give players

directional audio cues, increasing realism during game play

This holiday season, Dolby(R) Digital 5.1 will be the audio standard in all of SEGA(R) of America Inc.'s new line-up of titles for the Xbox(TM) video game system from Microsoft(R), including ToeJam & Earl(TM) III: Mission to Earth, Panzer Dragoon(TM) ORTA, Crazy Taxi(TM) 3: High Roller, The House of the Dead(TM) III and SEGA GT(TM) 2002.

"The ultimate holiday gift list for gamers this year will include all the latest SEGA titles, an Xbox, and a home theater system with Dolby technology to maximize the audio for their new SEGA games," said Jack Buser, manager of game developer relations at Dolby. "Everyone should play these games in Dolby Digital 5.1 for the full experience."

SEGA's Panzer Dragoon ORTA delivers a rich, cinematic experience that is equal parts action game and Hollywood blockbuster, featuring heart-pounding action, strategic aerial combat and massive breathtaking environments. Because the battles occur in the air, enemies can attack players from a full 360-degree field. With Dolby Digital, the player's experience is made more realistic as the enemies' sounds come from nearly every direction. These audio cues increase accuracy and realism during game play.

"Dolby Digital will give players information that cannot be visually described on-screen," said Akihiko Mukaiyama, director of Panzer Dragoon ORTA. "With the control system in Panzer Dragoon ORTA, players can look freely to the front, back, left and right while they are flying, allowing them to anticipate key plot points or enemies approaching from different directions, which makes game play experience that much more immersive."

Gamers should connect their Xbox to a home theater system using Microsoft's Advanced AV Pack or High Definition AV Pack. Either Pack allows Xbox to connect to the digital input of a home theater system to provide 5.1 channels of Dolby Digital surround sound during game play.

About SEGA

SEGA(R) of America, Inc. is the American arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, a $3.5 billion corporation by market capitalization, recognized as a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. SEGA of America's Web site is located at www.sega.com.

About Xbox

Xbox (http://www.xbox.com/) is Microsoft's future-generation video game system that delivers the most powerful games experiences ever. Xbox empowers game artists by giving them the technology to fulfill their creative visions as never before, creating games that blur the lines between fantasy and reality. Xbox is now available in North America, Japan, Europe and Australia.

About Dolby in Games

Dolby technology allows gamers to experience cinematic-quality surround sound and has become the standard for audio in next-generation games. Dolby works closely with the game development community to raise the bar in game audio quality. In a survey recently commissioned by IGN.com, a online interactive entertainment news site, 37 percent of all gamers polled, stated that they currently play video games on a home theatre system with Dolby Digital 5.1. Dolby has also developed the groundbreaking Interactive Content Encoder that enables real-time Dolby Digital encoding in game consoles. Today, Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Pro Logic(R) II are incorporated into hundreds of major game titles on every major game platform.

About Dolby Laboratories

Dolby Laboratories is the developer of signal processing systems used worldwide in applications that include motion picture sound, consumer entertainment products, and media, broadcasting and music recording. Based in San Francisco with European headquarters in England, the privately held company also has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo. For more information about Dolby Laboratories or Dolby Technologies, please visit www.dolby.com.

Dolby, Pro Logic, and the double-D symbol are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. Xbox is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.