Whatever happened to Aureal?

A

arcanex

New member
I've had my computer for over two years now, and it came with an ESS audiodrive that supported A3D. For two years I haven't really paid much attention to it because I don't have a single A3D game before this one I just got (except for the OEM version game they included with my purchase). It said I probably want to upgrade my A3D drivers but when i went to the website it's down. Tried again for the whole next week and it's always down. Then somewhere I read that Aureal has gone bankrupt or something. This was a big surprise to me, 'cause I've always thought I am the first one on these kinda things. So my question is: What happened to Aureal?
 
The ESS Card is not supported by Aureal, it doesnt use an Aureal chip nor has drivers written by Aureal. A3D for the ESS is a software only solution provided by Aureal for Compaq.
 
Actually, CL sued them out of existance. They filed frivolous lawsuits - which aureal won btw, but it drained aureals cash reserves so low, they went chpt 11. After going bankrupt, Creative went in, and purchased aureal for a ridiculous sum of money. Mainly, I think, to keep Guillemont from purchasing them, and continueing to produce a highly competitive, if not superiour, solution to CL Live series. After CL finally purchased Aureal, they, as usual, went back to monopolistic mode. By all means they have slowed down R&D and their driver updates once again, come out rarely, and don't fix 100% of the problems.

If you couldn't tell from this post, I despise CL.
 
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