wizarbox is a video game developer based in france .

they are notable for their graphic adventure games developed by industry veterans , such as the so blonde series by steve ince ( lead designer of broken sword : the sleeping dragon ) and gray matter by jane jensen ( lead designer of the gabriel knight series ) .

the company declared bankruptcy in december 2012 and was placed in receivership by a french court .

interaction-games later acquired wizarbox .

wizarbox

wizarbox is a french video game developer which specializes in providing services to other developers .
focus home interactive , r . a . w . - realms of ancient war , wizarbox ,
indeed , breaking into video game development is difficult , and wizarbox should know best . as a middleware company , wizarbox has had to bail out many a small developer . there was one case in which a studio went bankrupt in the middle of a game and called wizarbox to finish and release it .
focus home interactive , r . a . w . - realms of ancient war , wizarbox , .
paris studio wizarbox filed for the french equivalent of chapter 11 bankruptcy in december , new reports have confirmed .
so blonde is an adventure game developed by wizarbox and written by steve ince , a former game designer for the broken sword series .
i must admit that i’d never even heard of wizarbox prior to that first e - mail . it’s funny how the world works at times .
arpg , focus home interactive , r . a . w . - realms of ancient war , realm of ancient war , trailer , wizarbox , .
wizarbox was founded about four years ago and specializes , as i said , in conversions , ports , outsourcing , and the like . the wizarbox portfolio includes the pc to xbox ports of arx fatalis and the panzer dragoon franchise . wizarbox has also worked very closely with paris - based ubisoft , handling numerous ports ( most recently , scrabble and dark messiah of might and magic ) and sending a team of developers to sweden to work on tom clancy ' s ghost recon advanced warfighter 2 .
i met ceo fabien bihour at the electronic sports world cup in paris , and he invited me to take a tour of wizarbox studios . so a week later , i made the fifteen - minute walk to his studio in sèvres , france , just outside of paris to talk about wizarbox about its up - coming adventure title , so blonde .
chances are , you ' ve unwittingly played a wizarbox game before , even if you ' ve never heard of them . actually , i should clarify - - you ' ve probably played a game that wizarbox has worked on , and you ' ve never heard of them . you see , wizarbox are the unsung heroes of video game development , a cloak - and - dagger studio whose primary function lies in ports , localizations , conversions , research and development , and other ninja - esque , behind - the - scenes ventures .
however , wizarbox is now in the process of finishing their first in - house game , an old school point - and - click adventure game that hearkens back to the monkey island era of yore .
the company you are trying to view is not available on indie db . only publishers and developers which have games , mods and other content released on indie db are listed . view wizarbox on mod db .
jeu serai aims to develop a tool to facilitate career guidance for adults and students . the project groups together the cnam , wizarbox , seaside agency , the arcnam poitou charentes and the université paris ouest la défense .
a video game development company which offers its skills to help productions . after 10 years of experience in video game industry , wizarbox has decided to bring their customers the very high quality service expected by the market .
adventure gamers recently went behind the scenes with both steve ince and so blonde ' s lead designer at wizarbox , jerome britneff - bondy , to ask about their collaboration on the new comic adventure and the paths that brought the two together .
develop reports that wizarbox was working on captain morgane and the golden turtle for multiple formats when it filed for what urltoken has revealed as a “en redressement judiciaire” – or ‘in receivership’ – the french version of america’s chapter 11 bankruptcy , which thq filed for last month .
other interesting projects that wizarbox is up to : talks with atari , and a collaborative project called play all . play all is essentially a government - sponsored research and design project intended to push the french gaming industry by pooling the collective resources of wizarbox , kylotonn , darkhorse , load inc . , and white birds productions . if the project works as planned , the result will be a wealth of r & d that could lead to a new class of better - trained , better - equipped , and more - experienced developers .
the character was partly created when i got involved in the project , with sketches and some description . but i was surprised at how easily i was able to get into the head of a 17 year old . must be all the pampering i receive when i visit the wizarbox offices .
starting out as a middleware company , wizarbox has had a chance to make a wide variety of games , from arx fatalis to scrabble to winnie the pooh . bihour sees the
wide range of games
as one of his company ' s selling points :
we ' re very lucky here at wizarbox - - we ' re not pigeonholed . video games . . . they ' re the first worldwide pass time . we have an opportunity to touch everyone , and we ' re very open . what ' s important is that people enjoy themselves without being boxed in [ to one genre ] .
develop adds that studio head fabien bihou – who formed the company in 2003 – went on record in 2010 to discuss wizarbox’s difficulty in finding new contracts , and stated that the industry’s economic state proved to be uncompromising for small studios . bihou added that moving to the lucrative mobile arena – at the time – would have been too risky .
it might turn out to be utterly brilliant but wizarbox’s background in handheld pap and conversions doesn’t thrill . they did make an original pc adventure game called so blonde but i haven’t played it , despite the promise of “more than 50 references to find ( tv , cinema , reality shows , video games ) and a lot of humor guaranty” .
mirof with tokkun studio worked on a lot innovating projects for reputable clients around the world . partners : warner , gameloft , ubisoft , pixar , total immersion , virtuos game , masa , game source , e - tf1 , punchers impact , devalley , white laser games , fishing cactus , wizarbox , white birds production , dk games , . . .
when wizarbox contacted me and said they wanted a writer they already had a couple of backgrounds created for the beach and the pier and had a number of character sketches . they knew they wanted a story based on the idea of a spoiled blonde becoming stranded on a mysterious tropical island . so i had the great pleasure of taking it from there .
besides so blonde , wizarbox are developing a handful of titles for the ds , as well as an unnamed pc to xbox 360 port . i asked if it happened to be the new dark messiah , but which bihour replied ,
no , i wish . i tried really hard to get that one , but ubisoft is handling that one themselves .
the high - level vision must be created first because itís this which drives the project forward and unites everyone into seeing the same goal that weíre all working towards . because there are a lot of talented individuals working on the game ( wizarbox have a great team ) , a common vision allows them to maximise their talents in ways that enrich the vision .
[ wizarbox ceo ] fabien [ bihour ] sent me an e - mail and asked me if i was interested in working on the game . i went over to paris , took one look at the sketches of some characters and it was love at first sight . considering that i speak no french , it was surprising how quickly we all started seeing the same vision for the game .
people at wizarbox brought the starting idea , which was to confront a young , pampered and modern blonde teen used to luxury and modern comfort with rude and bloodthirsty pirates . we thought this was an uncommon - so interesting - environment for an adventure game . when we needed to develop the story and push the concept forward , we contacted steve who loved the idea and collaborated with us to make our dream come true .
fewer people know much about wizarbox , a french studio that ' s been around for several years and yet exploded onto the adventure scene only recently with the release of so blonde . get used to hearing about them plenty more in future , though , as the company has taken over development of jane jensen ' s gray matter , even as they continue work on an
alternate reality
version of so blonde for the nintendo ds and wii .
with that in mind , so blonde was developed in about 10 months .
right from the start , we made the product we wanted . we wanted to reduce the risks ,
says bihour .
this was our calling card , a demonstration , showing people what we could do . so many companies fail after one game . . .
by avoiding the pitfalls of big - budget developing , wizarbox hopes to make some headway with so blonde before moving on the bigger projects .
gray matter was originally announced in 2003 as project jane - j and slated for release in fourth quarter of 2004 . the game was put on hold in 2004 and later revived by a german publisher anaconda in 2006 , for a release in fourth quarter of 2007 . the game was delayed further in early 2007 for a q1 2008 date . in early 2008 development studio was changed from hungarian tonuzaba to french wizarbox delaying the game to 2009 . the game is currently slated for february 25 , 2011 .
wizarbox had been porting video games by other companies to consoles since 2002 ' s arx fatalis . in 2007 , they released their first in - house developed video game , so blonde , written and designed by industry veteran steve ince . the success of so blonde led to the development of so blonde : back to the island , an alternate reality scenario set during the events of the original game , and the spin - off captain morgane and the golden turtle . after the troubled development of gray matter by jane jensen , they took over development of the title and released it in 2010 .
this universalist approach is exactly what led wizarbox to make their first original game , so blonde , anadventure game .
people want to hear a story , to follow a scenario ,
says bihour .
we think that there ' s still a large public for [ adventure games ] .
he goes on to say that he ' s been hearing people ring the death knell on adventure games for 15 years , but responds that there is a still a large adventure fan base .
we ' ve managed to captivate a fairly large audience . these are games that have a crazy community that are very loyal .
is a role - playing game with action combat . it is set in a fantasy world where dwarves , elves and humans are at war - and now another , dark power sends demons into this world . a powerful ghost makes the player character his avatar in order to defeat this power . unfortunately no one knows this and so the player has to kill everyone met except the occasional quest giver .
this is a typical hack & slash game . the player chooses one of three classes ( warrior , rogue or wizard ) and mows down thousands of enemies in linear levels . this rewards experience points and after earning enough , the character levels up ; although only once per stage . this rewards a point which is in turn invested into upgrading skills . those skills are class specific with the exception of the incarnation ability which allows to take control over an enemy for a short time . attributes only improve when finding and equipping better weapons and armor .
- style clicking ) with mouse and keyboard . a second player can join in at any time and automatically starts with the appropriate level - progress is only saved for the first player . when one character dies , it respawns after a few seconds with full health if the other player survives that long .
jane “gabriel knight” jensen’s new point’n’click adventure , gray matter , is now available from german digital download site gamesplanet after 7 years in development under two different dev studios and two different publishers . the german version has english voiceovers , so apparently it’s playable . you can buy it here for €39 . 99 , which i think is more money than i’ve ever had at any one time . thanks to rps reader wendy for the heads up , and thanks to qt3 poster triggercut from informing wendy via this thread .
edit : anyone interested in the boxed version can hit up the german amazon , too .
gray matter is still scheduled for a february 2011 release for america and the uk .
if you click our links to online stores and make a purchase we may receive a few pennies . find more information here .
i can scarcely believe it actually came out . i think i’ll wait for it to get on steam though .
yay a new adventure by the gabriel knight creator ! for €39 . 99 ? no , thanks…
€39 . 99 isn’t ∞ , is it ? it’s not that much for a new game , actually . what’s the big deal , because i don’t get it ?
it seems a lot for a download - only copy of something that’s listed as £25 or less for a physical one when it’s released here . €35 . 99 for physical ( amazon . de ) is better , but i can stand to wait for now .
i must say that it is more than i have ever spent on a game in my life .
quinns , you’re inventing numbers now . am i supposed to take your word for it that this “39 ` 99” number is real ? as if . and you call yourself a journalist . for shame !
hopefully the uk version will be cheaper . a lot cheaper . if there’s a boxed version then the price should go right down in no time on sites like play , amazon etc .
that is a lot of money for a point and click adventure , considering we get the mi remake bundle for nearly a third of that price . but it’s jane jensen , and it’s been a long time in development . will we see a wot i think on it ?
to put the pricing of that particular shop in perspective : codblops is €59 . 95 tropico 3 gold is €29 . 95 ( discounted atm from €39 . 95 )
i remember when most of the discussion when a game came out was how it played and how good it was , but all people worry about now is the cost . games aren’t getting cheaper to make , so forcing prices lower means lower budget , less polished games , or games that are dumbed down to appeal to as many people as possible .
to be fair that’s probably only the case here because special attention was drawn to the apparently very mysterious currency that people will have to tangle with if they want the game right now .
people debate if xxxxx is worth $ $ $ $ $ all the time . games arent special in that regard .
i don’t know if making games is , or isn’t , getting cheaper , so i can’t comment . however , a market is based on the price people will accept for what they’re getting . it’s expected that enough schmucks will be willing to pay £50 for cod or moh on the release day , so they price it accordingly . for something a little more niche , the price has to come down to encourage sales . it’s up to the developer to keep their costs lower without impacting on the eventual produce , as that too will effect sales . they also tend to be happier with sales over a long period , rather than only being interested in day - one , headline making , sales .
the exception to this is games like victoria or the even more grand strategies , which are certainly not mainstream and aren’t actually expected to sell many units . they have to be priced up , in order to make a profit . in any case , the people who buy grand strategies tend pay whatever asked .
@ cliffski i remember when reviews were buying guides and so often linked the price of the game to the discussion of its merits . as for production costs , while gta4 cost $ 100m , canabalt was made in 5 days , so i doubt that cost much to make… certainly in some cases production costs have dropped dramatically over the past five years . as for dumbing down or being less polished ; there’s a lot of aaa big budget productions which suffer from those faults . that said , i can understand that it might be annoying for a developer to hear a journalist with a big audience implying that the price of a game is too damn high .
it might be annoying on a personal level , but only a totally pigheaded developer would ignore it . you have to listen to your customers , or you won’t have them much longer .
i know lower price doesnt mean lower profit . its not like i just got off the boat . but if you want lower price and higher profit , that means you need much higher sales , meaning your game has to be less niche .
that was exactly the point i was making . as to ‘listening to your customers’ , i kind of do that too , but customers seem to be under the impeession that if they demand free games , or games costing $ 0 . 01 , they will get them , with everythign else remaining the same .
they will either get very very mass market games or very crap games . there isn’t any other way to manage it .
it’s like demanding cheap chicken . you can have cheap chicken . fuck knows what they feed em , or how it’s produced , but if the customer * only * cares about price , then the customer gets battery chickens injected with water .
all i’m saying is i’m prepared to pay more , for better quality , polished games .
amazon germany also seems to have the boxed version in stock : link to urltoken . and the description also mentions english voiceovers . it would not cost any less once shipping costs are added though .
@ rps : do you know if you’re getting a review copy ? i used to work for the developer so if the publisher’s not doing its job maybe i can arrange for you to get a copy . i mean , €∞ is a lot of money these days .
you know , i post comments on rps , so technically , my words are published on rps , therefore , i write for rps .
i just read brumisator’s comment , therefore i’m a proofreader for rps , and thus his secretary , here at rps .
all review copies should be sent to my desk so i can forward them to him .
games in germany are a lot more expensive than in uk . gray matter is 35 , 99€ on urltoken and that is a very good price for a new pc game .
it’s a pretty good game . my first immediate impression is that they’ve put a lot more thought into animation than other point and clickers . characters ( main ones , at least ) don’t just stand utterly motionless , there’s plenty of idle wandering about , twitching , adjusting weight , etc etc , and the lead character sam tends to not look that robotic , especially how she does the grim fandango trick of looking about at items of importance ( though you can highlight them all easily enough with space ) .
i’m not too sure the depiction of england and oxford is that accurate though…it seems to the us england is nothing but country roads and wooden road signs ( in the intro there’s a sign that just says ‘oxford – london” as if those are the only two places in existence . also one of the english characters going ‘oxford to london ? about two hours by train’ didn’t seem quite right . but maybe they were using virgin rail .
maybe they’re just going by the assumption that you’ll likely end up having to take the replacement bus service .
just a shade over one hour according to thetrainline , but yeah , rail replacement busses into london would be horrific .
my take on this one is that the story seems to be very appealing ( i’m halfway through chapter 2 ) and graphics are definitely very good , especially for a point & click adventure game . the only thing that makes me cry in pain is the user interface , that is , at least as far as i’m concerned , not that ‘smooth’ to use , the inventory above everything else .
as far as the currency debate , €39 . 95 is an average price for a videogame . sure , there are cheaper ones , and sure , i for one prefer to buy from the us because it’s cheaper , at least for me because i benefit from currency conversion rates , but €39 . 95 is like 8 beers . how long does it take for you to drink those ? : )
here in sheffield 8 beers in a pub * would only cost you £20 - ish . that’s about €24 . yeah , yeah , regional pricing . but still .
criminy . i like jane jensen , but i don’t think i’m dropping $ 55usd on her game without reading some reviews and maybe playing a demo first . point - and - click adventures haven’t been my favorite thing for awhile now , and while i freely admit that may just be because there haven’t been that many lately ( and even fewer good ones ) , i still find myself hesitant to pay top price for one off the bat .
gray matter is a very , very flawed game with a very , very good and well written story . play it only if you like jane jensen and her stories , you wont be disapointed . if you’re expecting a technical wonder , forget it .
well it has low production values . the animations are pretty bad , the graphics are not too bad , but the art style is so boring . the game follows the “one - click - does - everything” wich is a pitty because makes the game too easy . the voice acting ( the english one ) is not on par with gabriel knight . , however steven pacey that voices david styles is incredible .
overall it lacks polish ( it doesn’t have any major bugs though ) it’s pretty obvious they didn’t have the budget to do more .
however , jane’s story saves the day , but i’ll let you discover that by yourself . it all depends on how you value the narrative in a video game , if you don’t care , gray matter will be pretty… meh…
yep . he’s fantastic , . it helps that his character , david styles , is very well written and developed .
i’m still in chapter 1 but i enjoyed the animated style of the intro a lot . the heroine seems like an interesting character .
the art style is very classical so far . big mansion , paintings , … it’s true that the game doesn’t look like it had an unlimited budget . but it’s the story i’m looking forward to .
the only downside of buying the game this way is that it only comes with a german pdf manual . this means i’m missing out on jane jensen’s intro to the story and chars and on the explanations on… your character’s hobby ( trying not to spoil it ) . the tutorial hasdone a good job so far of filling the gaps though . so might not be an issue .
39 . 99 is 10€ less than most new games cost on steam , and 5 - 10€ less than games cost on the high street here in germany .
it’s 3 euro more expensive than fallout new vegas , so it must be pretty good… apart from trolling i don’t think it’s a lot of money for an indie game , nevertheless i’m not interested .
no need . the story is where it’s at and , so far ( i’m at the end of chapter 2 ) , it’s very intriguing . it’s definitely got the jane jensen touch .
sometimes we include links to online retail stores . if you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small commission . for more information , go here .
this site © 2018 gamer network . all rights reserved . no part of this site or its content may be reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder .
html public
- / / w3c / / dtd xhtml 1 . 0 transitional / / en
urltoken
easylist , avast , and other blockers break disqus . tweak your extensions , brosef .
but , we ' ll talk about so blonde tomorrow . for now , check out what bihour and his team have to say about what it is they do , the adventure genre , and what it takes to break into the big - budget world of videogame development .
install base aside , bihour says that he wanted to make a game that
developed the imagination ,
he says .
technologically , games have evolved a lot , but at the bottom , they ' re exactly the same . to make a good product , to present a project , to create a beautiful story . . . it ' s a lot harder to make your mark in a market that ' s saturated with first - person shooters ,
he continues .
the visit ends with a condemnation of the mindset bihour and his company are trying to change :
people congratulate themselves for making a clone of last year ' s games . people need to not be afraid of new ideas and new stories .
joseph leray is a long - time features contributor , reviewer , and ( self - styled ) editor - at - large for destructoid . he lives in nashville with a menagerie of pets and a final fantasy ix obsession . more + disclosures
ladies and gentlemen , the day has finally arrived . the new fifa 18 world cup mode unveiled earlier today , and now players can spend hours winning the world cup with their favorite teams , packing incredibly gifted players into their ultimate squads . personally , im looking forward to . . .
you ' re not expected to always agree , but do please keep cool and never make it personal . report harassment , spam , and hate speech to
sony santa monica makes us care about kratos in this stunning revival of the series .
far cry 5 ' s story is a real let - down , but the action still makes for a solid co - op experience .
there are some elements around the edges that haven ' t aged all that well , but burnout paradise is still a fantastic racing game .
podcasts giant bombcast the giant beastcast giant bombcast ( premium ) the giant beastcast ( premium ) giant bombcast aftermath ! all systems goku premium podcasts giant bomb presents gaming minute 8 - 4 play alt + f1 bombin ' the a . m . with scoops and the wolf !
the services this developer can provide include consulting , managing out - sourcing and in - sourcing needs as well as conversion , also known as ' porting ' . the developer also offers these services in a number of other industries including architecture , defense , physics , and medical imaging .
beware , you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits . make sure this is what you intended . this will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live .
until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other giant bomb users . this process takes no more than a few hours and we ' ll send you an email once approved .
because you ' re new to wiki editing , we sent your submission off to our moderators to check it over . most changes are approved within a few hours . we ' ll send an email when it is .
points you ' ll be able to bypass this step and make live edits to our system . until then , gain points by continuing to edit pages .
in this spin - off from so blonde , morgane castillo chases the trail left by ‘famous adventurer’ buckleberry tanner to find the clues that will lead to the hidden treasure of turtle island . in her journey from playful girl to the caribbean ' s first fearsom female pirate captain , she much al
ever since losing his wife in a terrible car accident many years ago , neuro - biologist dr . david styles has become a recluse , leaving his english mansion dread hill house only on rare occasions . one day student and street artist samantha everett shows up on his door step unexpectedly , at a time styl . . .
colonel reyel - dis - moi oui ( feat . krys ) ( clip officiel )
© valve corporation . all rights reserved . all trademarks are property of their respective owners in the us and other countries .
© 2018 valve corporation . all rights reserved . all trademarks are property of their respective owners in the us and other countries .
vat included in all prices where applicable . privacy policy | legal | steam subscriber agreement | refunds
realms of ancient war ! it’s a title that should be shouted , i believe . it’s also a title that needs some tidying up , since we’re apparently supposed to call it “ r . a . w . – realms of ancient war “ . no . no i absolutely won’t do that . your title doesn’t get to be an acronym and the expansion of that acronym . that’s not how titles work . and you certainly don’t get all those full stops and then a hyphen . goodness me , no . your game is now called realms of ancient war , and it’s to be shouted . it is decided . please redesign your website / game materials . thank you . oh , and also your game looks super - pretty .
due for release next year , the aggressively titled r . a . w . – realms of ancient war looks a little diabloesque in the four new screenshots below . however , a trailer almost as ancient as the very realms in which it takes place reveals it to have more in common with baldur’s gate : dark alliance . there are three exciting classes to choose from – warrior , sorcerer and rogue . i bet one of them is stealthy and has a penchant for ranged weaponry . there’s also a storyline about the ruined kingdoms of dwarves , elves and man , but guess what ? a new and unknown threat is now rising ! let’s take a look and then guess what this fresh evil might be .
gray matter , the new point’n’click extravaganza from jane “gabriel knight” “she designed gabriel knight” jensen , has slipped from sometime in 2010 to a february 2011 release date . boo ! i don’t know much about gray matter , so in the course of my cursory research this morning i hiked over to the wikipedia page . lord , has this game had a bad time of it .
click through for a look at the gamescom 2010 trailer . probably for the best if you leave any high expectations at the door . read the rest of this entry »
html public
- / / w3c / / dtd xhtml + rdfa 1 . 0 / / en
urltoken
raising the productivity and competitiveness of european businesses through technology . boosting national economies on the international market , and strengthening the basis for sustainable prosperity and employment .
owners : estimated number of people owning this game . the number might be way too small for new releases and sometimes way too big for games that had free weekend event recently . read more on about page .
playtime : average hours played in total per person that have actually launched this game since march 2009 . this time is calculated for the whole lifetime , not for the particular year .
average score : average users and metacritic score for all games with this score assigned .
average playtime : average lifetime playtime for all games where this data is available .
games by this company : self - explaining - number of games released by this company on steam . both developed and published . only inculdes games with sales data available .
total copies owned : refers to total copies of games developed or published by this company acquired by users for the lifetime . includes copies sold , downloaded for free and given out .
this number might be too small for recently released games or too big for games that had a free weekend in the last couple of months .
if you want to proceed , you need to register or log in first and then back steam spy on patreon . look for indie or pro pledge .
still , it’s being released on xbla and psn as well so probably won’t cost the earth and i’m not averse to a spot of co - op hacking and slashing . click the screens to make large versions loom across your screen .
looks right up my street . loved the dark allience and champions of norrath games on the ps2 .
on a slightly related note , has anyone tried snowblind’s new game ? the lotr’s one released last week ? any good , worth £30 or worth waiting for the sales .
it’s really well worth it…if it weren’t for the game breaking bugs , such as save game corruption and loss of progress in coop . but when it works , it’s fantastic and truly addicting
thanks for the response . will hang on for the first patch , or the steam sale . whichever omes first at any rate .
well , it was on cyber monday sale on urltoken for 18€ just a few hours ago and our games are usually way more expensive . so , i’d say sth is fishy here and i’d rather wait , if i was you .
i somehow can’t see the embedded video . adblock is off . anyone got a direct link ?
hang about – i can fix that , methinks . if not , expect a second and humiliated reply momentarily .
so blonde was written by steve ince if i remember right . the game itself was not received too well though .
has nothing i haven’t seen before . here’s hoping they have gameplay innovations a plenty then !
looks to me like it’s about three pixels off of gauntlet legends for my original xbox .
that was my exact thought as well . it’s got gauntlet written all over it .
i love the ultra zoomed out view . thing that always bugged me was i couldn’t zoom out further on torchlight .
looks good . i loved bg : dark alliance . and a twin stick version of diablo would b e awesome .
someone actually made a game out of the whole “this is what diablo3 should look like” - debate ? awesome ! this i might be able to play .
looks like another arpg is on the horizon . . . this one is xbox live / psn / pc .
anyways he ' s an article from rps on it . . . looks decent to me definitely interested on how it shapes up . . . though i agree with the article the developer ' s track record does little to instill any confidence heh .
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
i ' ve always felt that a person ' s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic .
send a private message to i . n . s . a . n . e
find all posts by i . n . s . a . n . e
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
it may take centuries to rise but once the ice starts moving even mountains will yield .
- armant , prophet of the northern empire
buying things enhances my gaming experience .
hm . . . i ' ve just read it is going to be on pc as well . . gameplay video
they did make an original pc adventure game called so blonde but i haven’t played it , despite the promise of “more than 50 references to find ( tv , cinema , reality shows , video games ) and a lot of humor guaranty” .
i own so blonde on pc . its one of my favorite point and click adventure games . the game is very rough around the edges and was obviously designed within the limitations of the wii but the pc version still had fantastic areas , great dialogue and brilliant characters . odd . . . this is the second time i have mentioned so blonde today .
after void ( null ) left there was basically no point anymore . . .
damn this does look nice , i think 2012 will be awsome for arpg . . d3 , grm dawn ( hopefully ) raw . . lineage etc me likey
yes , this looks very nice . i like the graphical look , as it is colorful without being too colorful ( torchlight , dungeon siege 3 , etc ) , yet retains a realistic graphical style . looks promising . would prefer to get it for the pc . thanks for the heads up .
btw i ' ve quickly become bored with path of exile . . . anyone else have this happen to them ? the pacing of poe is just way off kilter . it is just mobs of enemies throughout , which becomes tediously boring . this looks like it has mobs of enemies too , but it is off - set by exploration with few or no enemies , therefore the pacing seems much more to my liking . i hope its as good as it looks . . . and that it comes out on dvd .
so blonde was nominated for
best video game script
at the 2008 writers ' guild of great britain awards .
html public
- / / w3c / / dtd xhtml 1 . 0 strict / / en
urltoken
art director / senior artist freelance with proven artistic , creative and leadership skills and experience & president at tokkun studio . mirof participated to the production of about 30 video games , movies , advertising , . . . across different art departments ( concept art 2d , 3d , ui , animations , cover , packaging , management ) . working with the entertainment industry since 2006 .
in addition to his work freelance , mirof founded the company tokkun studio & tokkun academy since six years ago with only one goal : offer outsourcing high quality services to our clients . he is very proud of this adventure wich allows him to meet incredible artists and and partners over the years . tokkun studio , video game studio and service provider for multimedia and cinema , is based in annecy in france and ajaccio in corsica . the studio is built on an experienced and motivated team from all branches of the entertainment industry . in may 2006 , mirof launch a french professional magazine
game development magazine
.
. management : team management , scheduling , pipeline organization , staffing , career development .
. painting & modeling : 3ds max , maya , zbrush , sketchup , udk , unity , paint tool sai .
. adobe suite : photoshop , after effects , flash , illustrator , dreamweaver , indesign .
crasher artbook ( print / design made by mirof with illustrations , w . i . p and explain by mirof about crasher )
in addition to this game , the following people are listed as working on other games . no more than 25 people are listed here , even if there are more than 25 people who have also worked on other games .
adventure was always in her blood . from being a pirate captain ' s daughter to becoming the caribbean ' s first female pirate captain herself ; morgane castillo was never going to lead a boring life ! join morgane as she grows up from an innocent 8 year old island girl to becoming the most famous pirate of the caribbean ! travel with morgane as she seeks out the mysterious treasure of the golden turtle and help her solve the mysteries , puzzles , clues and outwit her enemies along the way . help her recruit her crew , explore over 50 locations on 5 beautiful and exotic islands in the caribbean sea but above all , try to keep her out of trouble . . . she is a pirate after all !
os : windows xp / windows vista / windows 7 / windows 8 cpu : 1 . 6 ghz ram : 512 mb hard disk free space : 3 gb video card : 64 mb directx compatibile audio card : directx® 9 . 0 compatibile extra : il gioco richiede un attivazione con drm proprietario - potrà essere attivato su un massimo di 5 computer
dichiarazione di copyright zodiac© 2011 copyright tutti i diritti di testi e immagini contenuti nel presente sito sono riservati secondo le normative sul diritto d‘autore . in accordo con queste , è possibile utilizzare il contenuto di questo sito solo ad uso personale e non commerciale , avendo cura che il testo e / o le fotografie non siano modificati in alcun modo . non ne è consentito alcun uso a scopi commerciali se non previo accordo con adventure‘s planet srl .
adventure ' s planet s . r . l . | p . iva 01787380680 design antonio pesacane
in a world fascinated by paris hilton types , itís probably about time we got to play one . so blonde gives us sunny blonde - 17 , pretty , rich andöblonde . what starts as a cruise around bermuda ends up with sunny all at sea on an island with no shopping mall , no mobile phone reception and lots of pirates .
written and designed by steve ince , whose most notable projects to date include the broken sword games , but who has contributed to games as varied as in cold blood and the witcher , so blonde looks likely to appeal to everyone with an eye and an ear for some good - natured fun .
no , because itís not about poking fun at a specific group of people . what weíve done is to take that stereotype , have a little fun with it in that form and then take it beyond the stereotype . if sunny didnít have something deeper within herself she would never get off the first game location .
very much so . having my work recognised in such a manner suggests to me that i must be doing something right ( or iím good at fooling people ) . what pleases me as much as my personal recognition is that itís a real shot in the arm for the adventure genre as a whole . to all those who claim that the genre is dead , we can refer to this nomination and say that perhaps they might like to reconsider that view .
the artists have had a lot of fun with background detail and weíve taken that on board so that , yes , there are always things to interact with , even if they donít always move the story forward . we have a lot of fun with this kind of thing .
i went to great lengths to ensure that all the characters were a vibrant part of life on the island . they all have a role to play in the unfolding story and there are many times when re - visiting characters through the game gives new information and helps with both the story and gameplay .
iíd like to think that the way weíve entwined the story and gameplay together will make it a fun experience throughout . players will quickly become engaged in the islandís mystery and sunnyís role in uncovering and hopefully solving that mystery .
getting the dialogue balance right can be tricky ė too much and some players get bored , too little and exposition is jeopardised . how did you handle that here ?
with it being a comedy game , itís easy to have a lot of fun with the dialogue at the same time as being informative where appropriate . iíve tried to be quite succinct in any exposition and not overdone it at any one time .
i did the broad , top - level design , which included a lot of puzzle design , but i worked very closely with jerome britneff - bondy , who did a lot of the design detailing , created a lot of the specific puzzles , created the mini - games and generally helped make my puzzles better .
i donít have a particular favourite , but i love the way we have the puzzles and general gameplay overlapping and building on each other .
i read there are some mild action type sequences ( catching raindrops for instance ) . should players be concerned they will get stuck on these puzzles ?
no . these puzzles are what we term mini - games and each of them has an option to cheat if players really feel itís not for them . however , they are just meant to add a bit of fun to the variety and i hope that players will enjoy .
itís worth noting that completion of some mini - games will help towards triggering one of the multiple endings .
she lands on the island without a change of clothing and as soon as she reaches the town she spots a beautiful dress sheíd love to have . unfortunately , she has no money to pay for it . . .
apart from the mini - games , itís a traditional point - and - click interface which even i can manage to use .
nico in the earlier broken sword games was a strong and resourceful persona . is sunny the complete opposite or are there some inner strengths ?
sunny is certainly a very different character to nico , but she surprises herself with some of her resourcefulness , which grows throughout the game . if sunny ended the game as the same person she started it , i think the game would have become boring very quickly and players would probably have been irritated with her character .
most of the adventure games you have been involved with can be described as having an animated comic book graphic style . what draws you to that as a design platform ?
the art design decisions are mostly out of my hands , so the fact that many of the games have this kind of luck is a happy coincidence . i must admit that i prefer stylised graphics to photo - realism , particularly when player characters have to be carrying the contents of a small shop around with them .
thatís an interesting question . do we know if sunny escapes or not ? with multiple endings , do we know what the outcome might be ? does she settle down with a herd of geese and a cow , or is there something else that fate has in store for her ?
the name steve ince is widely known in adventure circles . in the past , that recognition has come largely from his work on the acclaimed broken sword series with revolution . now a freelance writer and designer , however , ince is beginning to make a name all for himself . receiving a nomination for “best videogame script” at the writers’ guild of great britain 2008 awards ( winner still to be determined ) for his latest adventure , so blonde , certainly won ' t hurt the cause .


lsi corporation was an american company based in san jose , california which designed semiconductors and software that accelerate storage and networking in data centers , mobile networks and client computing .

on may 6 , 2014 , lsi corporation was acquired by broadcom limited , formerly avago technologies for $ 6.6 billion .

lsi stockholders voted in favor of the proposal in april 2014 , merging the company into its parent , and continuing with the lsi brand .

lsi corporation

avago technowogies to acqwire lsi corporation for $ 6 . 6 biwwion in cash
ask a question about working or interviewing at lsi corporation . our community is ready to answer .
joined heiwa sogo bank , k . k . ( current sumitomo mitsui banking corporation )
had a great run at lsi logic and then lsi corporation . lot ' s of great people . unfortunately , the avago buyout tore apart the company .
lsi corporation designs semiconductors and software that accelerate storage and networking in datacenters , mobile networks and client computing . lsi corporation ' s technology is the intelligence critical to enhanced application performance , and is applied in solutions created in collaboration with our partners .
i had a great time working at lsi , lots of opportunities to grow and really thrived in the friendly atmosphere . the time i worked for lsi , it was not part of avago . it was just lsi corporation .
lsi logic , inc . - lsi storage systems ( formally symbios logic , inc . )
interview with the co - founder , president and ceo : adesto technologies corporation , inc . ( nasdaq : iots )
lsi and storage technowogy corporation ( storagetek ) entered an awwiance making storagetek de distributor of deir co - branded storage products in january 2002 . [ 25 ] in august 2002 lsi acqwired mywex from ibm , to expand its storage technowogies . [ 26 ]
storage array , software and silicon vendor lsi corporation has bought struggling clustered filer supplier onstor for $ 25m , giving onstor ' s venture capital backers at least a $ 105m loss on their investment .
san jose , calif . and singapore , may 6 , 2014 ( globe newswire ) - - avago technologies limited ( nasdaq : avgo ) and lsi corporation ( nasdaq : lsi ) , today announced avago has completed its acquisition of lsi corporation for $ 11 . 15 per share in an all - cash transaction valued at approximately $ 6 . 6 billion . the acquisition creates a highly diversified semiconductor market leader with approximately $ 5 billion in projected annual revenues .
lsi logic corp . ( nyse : lsi ) said wednesday it will buy intraserver technology for about $ 70 million .
lsi corporation is announcing its new databolt technology for bandwidth optimization in datacenter applications . this unique performance acceleration feature for lsi’s 12 gb / s sas products is designed to allow users to take advantage of 12 gb / s speeds with their existing 6 gb / s drive infrastructure .
assignment of assignors interest ; assignors : avago technologies general ip ( singapore ) pte . ltd . ; broadcom corporation ; reel / frame : 044887 / 0109
lsi corporation was an american company based in san jose , cawifornia which designed semiconductors and software dat accewerate storage and networking in data centers , mobiwe networks and cwient computing . [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
on may 6 , 2014 , lsi corporation was acqwired by avago technowogies ( now known as broadcom inc . ) for $ 6 . 6 biwwion , uh - hah - hah - hah . [ 5 ] lsi stockhowders voted in favor of de proposaw in apriw 2014 , merging de company into its parent , and continuing wif de lsi brand .
in juwy 2009 , lsi agreed to acqwire onstor , inc . for $ 25 miwwion , uh - hah - hah - hah . [ 37 ] lsi put onstor into its engenio storage division , which is a nas vendor . [ 37 ] lsi bought de 3ware raid adapter business of appwied micro circuits corporation in apriw dat same year . [ 38 ]
logic from intel corporation , where he served as vice president and co - general manager of the digital enterprise group—a group comprised of intel’s business client , server , storage and communications businesses .
on december 16 , 2013 , avago technowogies ( which water merged wif broadcom ) announced it wouwd be acqwiring lsi corporation for $ 6 . 6 biwwion in cash . the transaction cwosed on may 6 , 2014 . [ 51 ] [ 52 ] [ 53 ]
founded in 1981 , lsi is one of silicon valley’s oldest and biggest semiconductor companies . but the milpitas corporation ran into trouble about a decade ago when sales of the chips it made for various consumer products began to falter and its balance sheet sank into the red .
lsi corporation designs semiconductors and software that accelerate storage and networking in datacenters , mobile networks and client computing . our technology is the intelligence critical to enhanced application performance , and is applied in solutions created in collaboration with our partners . more information is available at urltoken .
the development team consisted of engineering teams in the u . s . and in japan . each team included both lsi logic and sony engineers , with some lsi logic engineers working at sony and some sony engineers working at lsi logic .
in chip deal , singapore’s avago to acquire lsi for $ 6 . 6 billion
file : lsi sas9211 - 8i h3 - 25250 - 02b face . jpg :
this isn ' t the first time ibm and lsi have teamed up . the companies
merger ; assignor : lsi subsidiary corp . ; reel / frame : 020548 / 0977
take semiconductor maker lsi corp , for instance . despite the declining tech sector , lsi has managed to profit from powerful secular trends . cramer said the chipmaker has actually benefited from the explosion of digital information , or “data deluge , ” as lsi calls it .
other companies that have complex programs should take notice . lsi logic is ready to help .
an alliance earlier this year under which ibm licensed some of lsi ' s chip architecture .
is lsi a bargain at current levels then ? to find out , cramer spoke with abhi talwalkar , president and ceo of lsi . watch the video to see the entire interview .
in november 2003 , lsi sowd its tsukuba , japan faciwity to rohm company , ltd .
disclaimer : lsi bought me a nice lunch in new york to brief me on these products .
lsi logic announced tuesday it will buy ibm ' s mylex unit to expand its storage technologies .
lsi added that ibm ' s technology will help it gain new customers in tight economic times .
lsi hosted its sixf accewerated innovation summit ( ais ) , in november 2013 . [ 49 ]
the first lsi chip set , using between six and 10 chips , will be ready next year .
in chip deaw , singapore ' s avago to acqwire lsi for $ 6 . 6 biwwion
lsi has launched a revamped portfolio of storage solutions around pcie ssds , caching and raid products . originally coined the warpdrive 2 , the 2nd - generation warpdrive falls under the new lsi product family as the lsi nytro warpdrive . the rest of the portfolio takes on lsi nytro branding and includes the nytro xd pcie ssd with intelligent caching software and the nytro megaraid raid card with caching ssd built - in . lsi is also offering the predictor software tool to help organizations find the right acceleration option for their usage profile .
in 2005 , abhi tawwawkar joined de company as president and ceo , and was awso appointed to de board of directors . [ 6 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ] tawwawkar was an executive at intew corporation before joining lsi , and began a program of acqwisitions and divestitures . [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ]
the acquisition is expected to add to lsi logic ' s revenue and provide significant benefits to intraserver ' s rapidly expanding customer base . the deal is expected to close during lsi logic ' s second quarter ending june 30 .
the deal will give lsi a system of hardware and software technologies known as redundant array of independent disks ( raid ) . mylex engineers and sales staff will join lsi as part of the deal . in addition , lsi will gain access to such ibm customers as nec , fujitsu - siemens , big blue itself , xyratex and eurologic .
in may 2005 , when abhi talwalkar took over as ceo of lsi corp . , the company was in the doldrums . last year lsi ' s revenue climbed more than 9 percent , to $ 2 . 04 billion .
lsi logic started devewoping its coreware technowogy in 1992 . [ 15 ] in 1993 , sony computer entertainment chose lsi logic as deir asic partner , charged wif fitting de pwaystation cpu on a singwe chip . [ 16 ] lsi’s coreware couwd do it , whiwe oder offers made to sony needed two chips . [ 16 ] sony awso worked wif lsi’s engineers devewop de graphics engine , dma controwwer , i / o and bus controwwers . [ 16 ]
in november 2000 , lsi acqwired syntax systems , and in august 2001 de groups merged to become lsi logic storage systems , and water engenio information technowogies . [ 19 ] in march 2001 lsi acqwired c - cube for $ 878 miwwion in stock . [ 2 ] [ 22 ] in dat same qwarter , lsi introduced gfwx , a fwexibwe process technowogy . [ 23 ] in september 2001 lsi acqwired a raid adapter division from american megatrends in a $ 221 miwwion cash transaction , uh - hah - hah - hah . [ 24 ] incwuded in dis deaw , lsi received ami’s megaraid software intewwectuaw property , host bus adapter products and 200 raid empwoyees . [ 24 ]
in 1995 , lsi logic acqwired de remaining shares its canadian subsidiary hewd , which amounted to 45 % . [ 17 ] in 1997 , mint technowogy , an engineering services company , was acqwired by lsi . [ 17 ] in august 1998 it bought symbios logic from hyundai ewectronic for $ 760 miwwion cash . [ 18 ] [ 19 ] in february 1999 , lsi acqwired seeq technowogy , adding physicaw - wayer based edernet technowogy to lsi’s product wine . [ 20 ] in may 2000 , lsi acqwired intraserver for $ 70 miwwion , wif expectations to add deir rapidwy expanding customer base to lsi’s own , uh - hah - hah - hah . [ 15 ] [ 21 ]
the accelerating innovation summit technology showcase is an annual opportunity for lsi and its partners to demonstrate new products . new product announcements and demonstrations this year include sandforce sf3700 technology and several implementations , new rollouts of lsi 12gb / s sas technology , the new nytro xp6200 pcie flash accelerator card , and lsi ' s new axxia 4500 communication processors .
lsi is possibly poised to expand onstor ' s oem relationships , in the wake of hp buying ibrix and thereby risking ibrix deals with companies such as ibm . lsi might now seem like a neutral alternative , as noted here .
portrait of abhi talwalkar , the new president and ceo of lsi logic since the end of may 2005 , photographed at the lsi logic headquarter in milpitas in january 10 , 2006 . ( joanne ho - young lee / mercury news )
lsi is combining fast pcie flash hardware with its home - developed intelligent caching and management software to improve application performance .
miwpitas - based lsi corp . was named a thomson reuters 2011 and 2013 top 100 gwobaw innovator . [ 50 ]
sony computer entertainment selected lsi logic as that asic partner . it was spring of 1993 when a team of sony and lsi logic engineers went to work on the task . first prototypes had to be delivered by the end of the year .
but equally significant , the playstation project highlights the concept of a partnership between customer and vendor . neither sony nor lsi logic could have created this product alone . sony provided the systems expertise and market knowledge and lsi logic provided the implementation expertise .
lsi is a great place to further ones knowledge of simulation technology in all job fields dealing with hardware and software . if you ' re looking to advance your career and earn a good living then lsi is a good place to be employed .
in chip deal , singapore ' s avago to acquire lsi for $ 6 . 6 billion - arik hesseldahl - news - allthingsd
at the beginning of the year lsi completed the acquisition of sandforce , the ssd controller maker we ' ve been covering extensively since its arrival on the scene in late 2009 . although the sandforce business model hasn ' t changed as a part of the acquisition , lsi is definitely going to start leveraging its newly purchased assets to deliver more sf - powered , lsi branded solutions - particularly for the enterprise .
the company said the acquisition will improve lsi logic ' s host adapter board and other product offerings in the network computing and communications markets .
lsi nytro warpdrive application acceleration cards : this is a second - generation line of pcie flash adapters for drop - in high performance and low latency to accelerate transactional application performance and response time . nytro warpdrive cards range in capacity from 200gb to 3 . 2tb of mlc or slc flash memory and use lsi sandforce flash storage processors with lsi sas controller ics , which are oem ' d by most major storage makers .
lsi president george wells said the company was not getting enough direct benefits from sematech to justify the costs . sematech dues are pegged at 1 % of sales for medium - size companies , putting lsi logic ' s share at $ 6 million to $ 7 million a year .
it is worth noting that with the announcement of the deal , lsi shares jumped 38 . 6 % to close at $ 10 . 96 on dec 16 . this substantial jump has resulted in a year - to - date return of 45 . 8 % on lsi shares .
lsi , which was formerly known as lsi logic , is the adopted home of another historically important chip company , agere systems , the former chip division of lucent technologies ( now alcatel - lucent ) and so has its roots in the old at & t and bell labs . agere was spun off from lucent in 2002 in an ipo . in 2006 , lsi acquired it in a deal worth about $ 4 billion .
we were not too enthralled with the idea of lsi money contributing to the equipment industry ,
wells said . he agreed that that was a worthy goal but added that lsi hadn ' t joined sematech
to be a venture capitalist for the chip - equipment industry .
analysts were not alarmed about lsi ' s decision .
i don ' t think it says as much about sematech as it does about lsi ,
said dean mccarron , an analyst with the research firm in - stat .
in terms of sematech ( technology ) and lsi ' s products , there ' s not a lot of overlap . i ' m not expecting anyone else to pull out right now .
in 1981 , wiwfred corrigan , biww o ' meara , rob wawker and mitcheww
mick
bohn founded lsi under de name lsi logic in miwpitas , cawifornia . [ 6 ] [ 7 ] wiwfred corrigan served as de ceo from 1981 untiw 2005 . [ 8 ] lsi initiawwy was funded by venture capitawists , incwuding seqwoia capitaw wif $ 6 miwwion , uh - hah - hah - hah . [ 7 ] in march 1982 , a second round of financing brought in anoder $ 16 miwwion , uh - hah - hah - hah . [ 7 ] lsi logic went pubwic wif nasdaq as lsi in may 1983 wif de wargest ipo to date of $ 153 miwwion , uh - hah - hah - hah . [ 7 ]
in its new nytro product line , lsi combines fast pcie flash hardware with its home - developed intelligent caching and management software to improve application performance .
the raid technology will bolster lsi ' s capabilities in areas such as storage area network ( san ) systems and storage components , the company said .
) for $ 6 . 6 billion in cash . post - merger , lsi shareholders will receive a cash payment of $ 11 . 15 for each lsi share . the transaction is expected to be completed within the first half of 2014 , subject to regulatory approvals and fulfillment of customary closing conditions .
moreover , lsi ' s product launches and higher sales of flash - based products are expected to provide adequate support to revenue growth . in addition , lsi ' s rapid traction in the growing pcie flash adapter market segment coupled with continuous share buyback and dividend payout are expected to boost investor confidence .
in additional to the anticipated strategic benefits of the acquisition , avago continues to anticipate achieving annual cost savings at a run rate of $ 200 million by the end of the fiscal year ending november 1 , 2015 , the first full fiscal year after closing . avago ' s management will discuss business outlook and provide guidance for the combined company during its second quarter earnings conference call on thursday , may 29 , 2014 . avago will include lsi corporation ' s contribution to financial performance in the company ' s third quarter earnings announcement .
in january 2012 , lsi compweted de acqwisition of sandforce , which produced fwash memory controwwers ( for $ 370 miwwion reported in october 2011 ) . [ 39 ] [ 40 ] lsi started producing its own pcie cards for data center servers , using sandforce’s fwash controwwer chips , under deir new nytro product wine dat apriw . [ 3 ] [ 39 ] [ 40 ] [ 41 ] [ 42 ] this incwuded dree different products : lsi nytro warpdrive appwication acceweration cards , lsi nytro xd appwication acceweration storage sowution , and lsi nytro megaraid appwication acceweration cards . [ 41 ] [ 43 ] [ 44 ] [ 45 ] lsi awso introduced its nytro predictor software , a toow dat hewps determine which nytro product works best wif which appwications . [ 39 ] [ 41 ] at de scsi trade association technowogy showcase in may 2012 , lsi announced accewerated datacenter performance wif its databowt bandwidf optimizer technowogy . [ 46 ] [ 47 ] the new databowt technowogy is being introduced to a wine of products incwuding de mini sas hd connector . [ 47 ] [ 48 ]
in addition , he noted , lsi ' s business is in producing highly specialized , customer - specific chips , while sematech is oriented toward developing technology for standardized , high - volume products . lsi has also had tough times financially and now does much of its manufacturing through a joint venture in japan .
lsi logic makes communications and storage semiconductors for data , voice and video systems . the milpitas , calif . - based company had warned on march 5 that its first - quarter revenue would miss expectations . lsi logic also said it was cutting costs and looking for ways to boost its profits and competitive position .
in october 2005 , lsi logic opened a semiconductor design and engineering devewopment center at de dubai siwicon oasis ( dso ) microewectronics innovation center . [ 33 ]
the acquisition of c - cube will also put lsi logic in a position to supply technology for the so - called networked digital home . up until now , lsi logic ' s technology has been aimed at storage technologies for the enterprise market - - workstation giant sun microsystems is the company ' s largest customer .
nytro warpdrive isn ' t just another pcie flash card . based on flash controllers from lsi ' s recent sandforce acquisition , it uses the same lsi sas drivers as the chip - level sas controllers lsi provides all the server vendors . that means you can boot from the warpdrive and run just about any operating system with the drivers that come in the box . this design will also use less system cpu and ram than fusion - io ' s thin - controller model .
milpitas , calif . - based lsi also announced a nytro predictor software tool , which provides a guide to uses in choosing the right nytro application acceleration package .
lsi logic , a maker of custom semiconductors , says it has agreed to acquire the set - top box technology company for about $ 878 million in stock .
lsi nytro predictor software tool – provides an intelligent guide for choosing the right nytro application acceleration solution . nytro predictor identifies and analyzes application “hot spots” of frequently - used data to help it managers and database administrators determine which applications can be accelerated and make recommendations on which lsi nytro product will provide the most optimized benefits .
lsi logic quits chip consortium : technology : the payoff for the milpitas , calif . , firm , a founder of the sematech organization , fell short of expectations .
dan hutchison , president of the market researcher vlsi research , said lsi ' s departure from sematech could even help the organization by demonstrating that it ' s not an old - boys club supported only for political reasons . by showing that companies can leave sematech , he said , lsi has indirectly enhanced the organization ' s credibility .
lsi logic said monday it will snap up c - cube microsystems in a stock swap valued at around $ 878 million to boost its position in the broadband entertainment market .
lsi’s 12 gb / s sas products are currently sampling for validation with oem customers , with general availability expected in q $ of 2012 . the complete press release is available
in connection with the closing of the acquisition , lsi ' s common stock will cease to be publicly traded on the nasdaq stock market after the close of market today .
worked at lsi for 4 months , the contract was canceled due to unit being deployed overseas , numerous job offers were available after contract cancellation but none that suited me .
lsi was a casework company that specialized in commercial laminate cabinetry mainly in hospitals and schools . the company has exchanged hand many times over the years and is now defunct .
lsi logic quits chip consortium : technowogy : the payoff for de miwpitas , cawif . , firm , a founder of de sematech organization , feww short of expectations
the stakes were high : a share of the $ 12 billion home video game market . sony corporation , the world - class supplier of entertainment systems ranging from giant projection tv sets to tiny walk - man cassette players , knew that the only way to crack an established market was to bring something new to the game . they reasoned that cartridge - based video games had run their course . so had 16 - bit game engines .
so in may 2005 , the chipmaker’s board replaced its ceo — company founder wilfred corrigan — with intel veteran abhi talwalkar , who has overseen a major transformation of lsi’s business .
lsi logic quits chip consortium : technology : the payoff for the milpitas , calif . , firm , a founder of the sematech organization , fell short of expectations . - latimes
with the performance potential of the newest generation of the pcie bus becoming standard in datacenter servers , lsi corp has int5roduced their databolt bandwidth optimizer technology for server attached storage solutions .
lsi was to demonstrate this leading 12 gb / s sas server storage performance utilizing their databolt bandwidth optimizer technology at the scsi trade association ( sta ) technology showcase on 5 / 9 / 2012 at the hyatt hotel in santa clara , california . the demo consists of a pcie 3 . 0 based server with lsi 12 gb / s sas hbas connected to multiple 12 gb / s sas enclosures . the drive enclosures were to house a mix of 6 gb / s and 3 gb / s hdds and ssds , and utilize lsi’s 12 gb / s sas expanders featuring the lsi databolt technology to achieve significant throughput and iops performance improvements compared to an end - to - end 6 gb / s sas storage system .
lsi ' s top competitors include motorola ( nyse : mot ) , lucent ( nyse : lu ) and nec ( nasdaq : nipny ) , according to hoover ' s online .
avago contacts bin jiang investor relations + 1 408 435 7400 investor . relations @ urltoken lsi contacts david miller media relations + 1 408 712 7813 dave . c . miller @ urltoken
lsi nytro megaraid application acceleration cards : these provide acceleration of sas - connected das storage by combining raid performance and data - protection capabilities of lsi megaraid controllers with on - board flash and intelligent caching software . nytro megaraid cards automatically move data between integrated flash storage and hard drives to blend high - performance and high - capacity storage without requiring software tuning or rewrites .
san francisco — chip maker lsi logic announced monday that it had entered into a joint development agreement with sanyo electric of japan to produce circuitry for a new type of advanced television system .
lsi is putting onstor into its engenio storage division . there is an irony here : engenio is now an nas vendor , a clustered nas , nas gateway and iscsi storage vendor , and will compete with netapp . tom georgens , who used to run engenio and almost took it to independence until lsi pulled its ipo , is netapp ' s president and chief operating officer .
the engenio division of lsi fiwed for its own ipo in 2004 , but widdrew citing adverse market conditions after de burst of de dot - com bubbwe . [ 19 ] [ 27 ]
12gb / s sas megaraid controller cards and 12gb / s sas expanders will be showcased with lsi ' s databolt functionality that improves the performance of 6gb / s sas drives when used with lsi’s 12gb / s sas components . an integrated solution will be showcased which features 12gb / s sas megaraid with syncro technology within a rackscale storage architecture to demonstrate storage resource pooling and server disaggregation .
the sematech chip research consortium suffered a significant setback monday when one of its founding members , lsi logic of milpitas , became the first to withdraw from the 5 - year - old organization .
my job at lsi is a rewarding one . i get to use a broad range of skills on a daily basis since my team supports a wide variety of applications and databases on multiple platforms
in juwy 1991 , lsi entered into an agreement wif sanyo ewectric of japan to make a set of chips dat transwate an hdtv signaw into a tewevision image . [ 13 ] [ 14 ]
the lsi nytro warpdrive is the second - generation product line of pcie ssds aimed at providing drop - in performance boosts , offering huge i / o gains and low latency to improve application performance and response time . the nytro warpdrives will be offered in capacities ranging from 200gb to 3 . 2tb in mlc or slc nand flash , powered by the lsi sandforce flash storage processors and lsi sas controllers . aimed at replacing the i / o performance of large arrays of hard drives , the nytro warpdrive requires significantly less cooling , power , as well as footprint in a datacenter environment .
talwalkar joined intel as a contractor in 1993 and rose to oversee one of the santa clara , californiabased companys main business lines . a skilled and fiercely competitive ping - pong player , he installed tables at all of lsis campuses and started a tournament that now includes 1 , 000 participants . senior writer julie segal spoke to the ceo in new york last month about his turnaround of lsi .
q sales to seagate technology account for about 17 percent of lsi’s revenue and another 16 percent comes from ibm . do you worry about having so much of your business tied to those two customers ?
q despite its increasing sales , lsi has remained mostly in the red over the past four years , based on generally accepted accounting principles . the recession certainly hasn’t helped . but are you concerned ?
lsi logic ' s job : integrate a 32 - bit risc microprocessor , a jpeg video decoder and a 3d graphics engine on a single chip , as well as deliver prototypes in record time .
despite its complexity , the playstation cpu chip does not strain the integration capability of the 500k process , nor does it tax the 500k ' s performance capabilities . employing lsi logic ' s coreware® methodology , sony and lsi logic engineers were able to create a design in months that would have been inconceivable just two years ago . the result demonstrates the benefits of the coreware methodology for large designs .
lsi ' s stock is currently up 14 percent year - to - date , but it has suffered losses in the past few months . the company also released quarterly earnings that beat analyst expectations .
lsi , one of the few it companies that make semiconductors , board components and all their accompanying software , revealed april 2 that it is now producing its own branded pcie cards for data center servers .
lsi nytro megaraid® application acceleration cards – provides simple and cost - effective acceleration of sas - connected das storage by combining the proven raid performance and data protection capabilities of lsi megaraid controllers with on - board flash and intelligent caching software . nytro megaraid cards seamlessly move data between integrated flash storage and hard drives to deliver a blend of high performance and high capacity storage without requiring expensive software tuning or rewrites .
lsi is a 33 - year - old chip company founded by three former executives of the old fairchild semiconductor . it makes chips that go into enterprise storage gear , hard drives and flash storage devices .
great place to work great benefits decent management great ceo until avago acquired us excellent salary good overall culture this all came to an end now that avago has acquired lsi and sold off most of it .
lsi nytro warpdrive™ application acceleration cards – second generation family of pcie flash adapters provides drop - in high performance and low latency to accelerate transactional application performance and response time . nytro warpdrive cards range in capacity from 200 gb to 3 . 2 tb of mlc or slc flash memory , and combine the award - winning performance , reliability and energy efficiency of lsi sandforce flash storage processors with market - leading lsi sas controller ics . a single nytro warpdrive card delivers the i / o performance of hundreds of hard disk drives while requiring significantly less power , cooling and physical space for a reduced total cost of ownership .
avago technologies limited ( nasdaq : avgo ) has notched a creditable win in the industry market place with the successful acquisition of lsi . considering that lsi is a top of the line storage and network component maker - controllers , adapters and more , and avago is a radio - frequency company with a major line of component sales in opticals , the merging of these two spectrums of technology portfolios is indeed promising .
we ' re bringing intelligence to the technology and are very much focused on acceleration solutions ,
gary smerdon , senior vice president and general manager of lsi ' s accelerated solutions division , told eweek .
lsi shares were down 1 to 51 1 / 2 wednesday morning , well below their 52 - week high of 90 3 / 8 . the company recently toppedestimates in its first quarter and predicted strong growth ahead .
in the transaction , each outstanding share of c - cube common stock is to be exchanged for 0 . 79 share of lsi logic common stock . the deal will be recorded under the purchase method of accounting .
lsi is using its annual accelerating innovation summit ( ais ) with a theme of
the datacentric era
to bring together industry leaders to describe a vision for future of the datacenter . ais will present keynotes and panels focusing on the management of massive volumes of data and where datacenter luminaries and representatives from lsi partners will discuss technologies and architectures including flash , openstack and open compute , and software defined storage and networking solutions .
the new nytro xp 6200 pcie flash accelerator series will be on - site , demonstrating lsi ' s latest technolgoy to compete for both datacenter and smb applications with cost - per - gb . the xp 6200 series is engineered for scalable datacenter pcie flash deployments and read - intensive applications . lsi and hyve solutions will be demonstrating an ocp open rack compute and storage system with winterfell web server nodes accelerated by nytro xp 6200 cards .
shares of c - cube closed up $ 4 . 94 , or 56 percent , at $ 13 . 75 . lsi logic closed down $ 2 . 65 , or 13 percent , at $ 18 . 04 .
lsi plans to introduce a complete line of products using this new technology that can take advantage of the higher throughput . this includes new cabling and a new mini sas hd connector that will allow customers to use active and passive copper , as well as optical connectivity . lsi expects this higher density cabling , in conjunction with their controllers and extenders , to allow cutting edge adopters to find new ways to deploy this high - performance storage .
lsi gets a recession - distressed business with reputable products , channels , technology and development assets . it can integrate the onstor technology into its engenio arrays , as well as selling it on an oem basis if it wishes .
lsi logic ' s coreware® methodology could put the entire playstation cpu on a single chip . other alternatives would need at least two chips . the coreware library included a mips r3000 core and a jpeg core that would be used in the playstation cpu chip with only minor modifications . and lsi logic ' s state - of - the - art 0 . 5 - micron fabrication facility had the capacity to manufacture production chips in the volume that sony needed .
the need for a higher - performance interface in cloud and enterprise datacenters is experiencing a growth explosion , as users seek to rapidly access critical applications data . lsi’s 12 gb / s sas solutions help address this challenge by doubling the performance of current 6 gb / s sas components . with the advent of pcie 3 . 0 , lsi’s new technology helps unlock the full potential of pcie 3 . 0’s increased bandwidth ; especially with solid state storage solutions .
jerry sanders , chairman of advanced micro devices and a strong supporter of sematech , said he viewed lsi ' s decision as an indication that the company no longer had a long - term commitment to manufacturing in the united states .
the deal , which is expected to close in the company ' s second quarter , ending june 30 , will add to lsi logic ' s earnings before goodwill amortization in 2001 , the company said . in january , lsi logic had also cut its second - quarter projections but said it was expecting a rebound in the second half . first call ' s current consensus projection is for earnings of 3 cents a share from the company ' s first and second quarters .
lsi , a milpitas - based company that focuses on semi - custom computer chips , will work with sanyo to make a set of chips for a new , high - resolution television system known as high definition television ( hdtv ) .
lsi has made several moves in the past few months that make it clear the company wants to evolve with the storage market as it makes the transition from spinning disks to solid state . lsi ' s latest solid - state products , the nytro line , concentrate on bringing flash into the server , a transition i ' m especially interested in . the company has also announced the first tool i’ve seen to help you figure out how flash can speed up your applications .
axxia 4500 communication processors on display feature lsi ' s new streamsight deep packet inspection engine that provides improved sdn controller traffic inspection , more efficient network management , and security via a processor with broad flexibility to tune performance at the packet level .
i don ' t yet have all the details on nytro xd , but the lsi guys were clear that , unlike some of the current caching products , it doesn ' t rely on software in each virtual machine to do the caching .
abhi talwalkar , lsi ' s ceo and president , said nothing exceptional about the acquisition , merely pointing out that :
the rapid growth of unstructured data is creating significant challenges for enterprises in provisioning , protecting and managing their storage in an efficient and cost - effective manner . with the addition of onstor products and technology , lsi will be well - positioned to offer a comprehensive set of storage solutions to help enterprise customers effectively manage both their unstructured and structured data with ease .
the lsi predictor software helps businesses better understand their workload to help determine which nytro application acceleration solution is right for their situation . the software has an easy to use gui and works in both wizard - style and more full - featured modes .
i clock in at 8 clock assignment ened at 5 . i unloaded trucks and wrap pallets also i had to take them to the designated area . over working at lsi was productive and fun they also have an awesome management team great place to work
sematech spokesman buddy price said lsi ' s departure would not affect operations or the effort to get new funding . member companies must give two years ' notice if they are going to leave sematech , and price said one other company was eligible to leave .
the datbolt technology will be implemented across the full line of lsi sas products , from raid - on - chip designs to host bus adapters , to their widely deployed megaraid controller line . lsi feels that , along with the ability to fully utilize the bandwidth potential of a pcie 3 . o host adapter , the backwards compatibility of the 12 gbps with existing sas standards will be the key to its success , especially for storage providers looking to off some measure of future - proofing to their existing storage environment .
we believe that lsi was a potent acquisition target as the company has a broad range of products that enables it to serve a diverse clientele in the hard disk drive ( hdd ) , server and networking end markets . also , the company ' s association with
combining the reliability and proven performance of the lsi megaraid product line with the high - performance pcie acceleration of the new nytro family , lsi is releasing the new nytro megaraid adapter . designed as an evolution of the popular cachecade raid caching solution , the nytro megaraid brings the flash - storage on - board instead of requiring businesses to configure an array of consumer or enterprise - grade sata or sas ssds themselves . this solution allows for greater performance benefits , reduced management costs while still providing a seamless caching implementation for sas - connected das storage .
in march 2011 , lsi announced its sawe of its engenio externaw storage systems business to netapp for $ 480 miwwion in cash . [ 1 ] the sawe of de engenio division , which generated revenues of $ 705 miwwion in 2010 , compweted in may . [ 1 ]
the jpeg decoder engine is based on lsi logic ' s jpeg core . modifications to the standard core involve the removal of some jpeg functions that are not used in the playstation , thus reducing the size of the core and the over - all size of the cpu chip .
the maker of chips for communications , consumer devices and storage did not disclose how much it will pay for the unit . milpitas , calif . - based lsi said the acquisition , slated to close in the quarter ending sept . 30 , is expected to improve its earnings .
avago technologies , a singapore - based company that makes chips that go into a variety of wireless and wired communications equipment , said today that it will acquire lsi corp . , a san jose , calif . , chipmaker , in a deal worth $ 6 . 6 billion .
lsi nytro xd application acceleration storage solution – combines lsi nytro warpdrive with nytro xd intelligent caching software to deliver out - of - the - box application acceleration for storage area networks ( san ) and direct - attached storage ( das ) environments . the nytro xd solution seamlessly caches frequently - accessed data reads and writes to high - performance pcie flash storage , reducing latency and delivering up to a 30x performance improvement over hdd - only storage systems . the result is optimized data i / o rates and faster system and application performance while leveraging existing it infrastructure for investment protection .
lsi was a good place to work . the management really tried to focus on the well - being of the employee . the health benefits were very good at the time i was there . the work was challenging but my coworkers were very highly motivated and helpful in meeting those challenges .
while pcie ssds can provide blazing speed , they ' re really just fast das , which limits their use in clustered environments like most hypervisors . lsi ' s nytro xd caching software lets you use the nytro warpdrive to accelerate applications with pcie flash while still storing the data on san storage .
that left the graphics engine , dma controller , i / o and bus controllers as the primary development tasks . lsi logic ' s applications engineers , both in the u . s . and in japan , had the experience necessary to quickly generate these circuits to meet sony ' s specifications .
on oct 23 , lsi reported modest third - quarter 2013 results with the top line lagging the zacks consensus estimate but the bottom line matching the same . the continuing macro uncertainty , competition from its peers , a declining pc market and the company ' s conservative guidance are near term concerns .
there ' s plenty of room in the enterprise pcie ssd space for the lsi warpdrive and fusion io line to co - exist . the sas2008 + sandforce + nand cards listed above appear to be a refresh of the previous warpdrive line , nothing wrong with that . also , lsi previously had a software - based ssd caching options available for their existing megaraid controllers called cachecade : urltoken the key point for the adaptec software option that you list above as well as the lsi cachecade software option is that both of these will improve read performance of your existing hdd raid arrays by implementing a ssd read cache . also , with both of these the ssds aren ' t integrated with the card . the apparent differences with nytro megaraid are that the ssds are integrated on the card itself ( meaning you don ' t have to trade off hdd capacity for caching ssds ) and according to some of the press releases this is both a read and write cache , so it might be more advanced than cachecade . this isn ' t clear but it ' s possible . at any rate , it ' s nice to see lsi quickly coming out with products that leverage the sandforce acquisition .
lsi nytro products are going to be generally available in the second quarter , with oem customers already sampling solutions . nytro warpdrive cards start with an msrp of $ 6 , 600 , nytro xd packages start at $ 9 , 400 , and new nytro megaraid cards start at $ 1 , 699 .
as i mentioned , however , higher bandwidth is not the only way to boost throughput . lsi is also on hand at sta with its new databolt system , which the company says delivers 12 g throughput over 6 g infrastructure . the system works by aggregating 6 g and 3 g end devices to provide a 12 g data stream while at the same time providing an intelligent data buffer to match drive and host performance levels . at the show , lsi will showcase the system using 12 gbps sas expanders tied to a xyratex onestore enclosure housing multiple 6 g and 3 g hard drives and ssds .
the milpitas , calif . - based company makes chips for hard drives , servers and storage systems for storing data , as well as the hardware needed to transport data . in turn , lsi’s products allow mobile networks and data centers to operate on the cloud , which cramer considers the future of technology .
the playstation cpu chip is one of the first system - level designs to be fabricated in lsi logic ' s 0 . 5 - micron 500k process technology . production chips were fabricated to meet sony ' s product introduction in time for christmas and in the volume needed to meet sony ' s delivery schedule .
a lsi was a leader in the 1980s and 1990s . but it kind of lost its way . it kind of went sideways . it was dispersed across way too many markets . there was limited synergy and strategic cohesiveness across the product lines . in fact , some product lines were doing things that compromised others .
the problem is we generally don ' t have any idea how much hot data we have or where it ' s located . lsi ' s free nytro predictor watches your applications ' disk accesses and not only identifies your hot data , but shows you how much flash you ' ll need to boost your performance .
storage systems are
proving to be the most cost effective and flexible solutions to meet growing customer storage needs under tight it budget constraints ,
tom georgens , executive vice president of lsi ' s san systems division , said in a statement .
this acquisition strengthens our position in this fast - growing segment .
q one of your changes was to have lsi focus solely on making chips and other products that work with data storage and communications , or so - called networking , devices primarily used by businesses . that’s a big difference from the past , when the company largely targeted the consumer market . what was the reason for that ?
it was trying to do way too much in too many different markets . the company did incredibly well in the 80s and through a large part of the 90s , but in the late 90s the industry around it started to change , and lsi wasnt able to change successfully with it . that led to a strategic vacuum .
date of birth : march 10 , 1964 birthplace : pune , india residence : portland , ore . ( he frequently commutes to milpitas ) position : president and ceo of lsi previous jobs : before joining lsi , he held several positions at intel , including vice president and co - general manager of the chip giant”s digital enterprise group . he also held senior engineering and marketing management positions at sequent computer systems ( now part of ibm ) , bipolar integrated technology and lattice semiconductor . education : bachelor”s degree in electrical engineering from oregon state university family : he and his wife , linda , have two sons , anthony , 19 , and stephen , 15 .
the next product is a little more ambitious as it combines a nytro warpdrive with lsi ' s own ssd caching software into a solution called the nytro xd (
xcelerated disk
) . if you can ' t ( or don ' t want to ) fit all of your data on a single pcie ssd , the nytro xd allows you to use a warpdrive to cache your direct attached storage ( sas ) or san array ( iscsi , fc ) . the hardware is identical to the nytro warpdrive , but the xd package comes with lsi ' s caching software and a support contract . prices start at $ 9400 including a 1 - year support contract .
lsi shareholders will get $ 11 . 15 per share out of the deal , amounting to a premium of more than 40 percent from friday’s closing price of $ 7 . 94 . shares of avago rose by more than 16 percent , to $ 52 . 75 , in pre - market trading , after news of the deal was published .
i have worked for lsi as a summer intern followed by about 3 years as a full time employee . the health benefits and work perks are great , the work that i have been doing is very enjoyable . the company pays attentions to employees ' wants / needs by creating various programs focusing on the well - being of the employees .
sony ' s engineers provided the systems expertise , defining the specifications that lsi logic ' s team then implemented in silicon . development proceeded rapidly , and first prototypes were delivered within schedule . first prototypes were functional , allowing the design teams to concentrate on refining the design rather than on fixing design flaws and allowing game title development to commence early .
western digital ' s hgst unit and seagate are scheduled to demo their 12g sas products at the scsi trade association ( sta ) technology showcase this week , and the similarities are striking . both devices offer dual - port resiliency and provide built - in support for new 12 gbps controllers , adapters and related technology from pmc - sierra and lsi .
the first member of the family is also the most obvious : the nytro warpdrive . take either 4 or 8 sandforce controllers , put them behind an lsi 2008 sas raid controller , throw in a bunch of nand , put it all on a pcie 2 . 0 x8 card and you ' ve got a nytro warpdrive . capacities start at 200gb ( slc ) and go all the way up to 3 . 2tb ( mlc ) . the warpdrive will be available in both half - height ( 4 x sf controllers , 1 . 6tb max ) and full - height ( 8 x sf controllers , 3 . 2tb max ) flavors . later this year lsi will offer a pcie 3 . 0 version of the nytro warpdrive that will enable speeds of up to 4gb / s . pricing for the new warpdrive will start at $ 6600 for the 200gb slc model . the beauty of using an lsi sas raid controller on - board is that any os with native support for the controller will , by default , support the nytro warpdrive .
lsi nytro packages are currently sampling with oem customers and are expected to be generally available beginning in q2 2012 . pricing for nytro warpdrive cards starts at a manufacturer ' s suggested retail price of $ 6 , 600 ; pricing for nytro xd solutions starts at $ 9 , 400 , and pricing for nytro megaraid cards starts at $ 1 , 799 .