VM Labs Announces Additional Nuon Partners
By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 1/29/2001
LAS VEGAS - VM Labs announced at CES an expanded list of hardware and software partners that have agreed to produce products based on its Nuon processor.
New DVD player makers include China-based Orient Power Multimedia and Korea's LG Electronics, owner of the Zenith brand. Both have signed on as Nuon licensees to produce Nuon DVD players, joining Samsung and Toshiba.
The company also announced that the Nuon processor will be deployed in Motorola's Streamaster 5000 line of digital set-top boxes, which ultimately will deliver video-on-demand services through Blockbuster Entertainment, Enron Broadband Services, Aliant Telecom and Australia's TransACT Communications.
Orient Power Multimedia, an OEM DVD player resource and marketer of the Oritron brand, said it has signed an agreement to market Nuon DVD players in the United States and Europe starting this year.
The first Oritron Nuon DVD player, model DVD900, will ship at midyear with retail prices expected to be below $200, the company said
The Oritron players will have a built-in modem to enable users to download supplementary interactive programming material from the Internet, and to access certain Interactive content on movie and games titles without the need for a DVD-ROM PC.
LG Electronics, a prominent OEM resource, said it plans to build Nuon processors into select DVD players it will manufacture this year, but model specifics and market plans were not revealed.
Zenith said it has no plans to add a Nuon DVD player in the current model line it recently announced, but it will consider the possibility for subsequent line introductions.
Additionally, video game and PC peripheral supplier Logitech announced it is licensing Nuon technology to develop Nuon-enhanced game pads that will carry $29.95 suggested retail prices when they ship in February.
Taking the technology to a new category, Motorola said it would use Nuon in its Streamaster 5000 set-top box series. Motorola said the Streamaster 5000 series is "one of the first advanced set-top boxes designed to enable service providers the capability to deliver high-quality audio and video, together with three-dimensional interactive content across a broadband pipeline into the living room."
The platform is capable of delivering such advanced consumer features as digital-quality broadcast television, high-speed Internet access, 3-D games, online shopping, karaoke, and video and music-on-demand.
In other news, VM Labs announced new interactive software titles from Hasbro Interactive and Taito Corp. for Nuon-enhanced DVD players.
Initially, Hasbro will ship in the second quarter Monopoly, The Game Of Life and Breakout video games. Taito will ship in the third quarter RC de Go!,Bust-A-Move 4 and Space Invaders 2001, scheduled for release in the second and third quarters.
All games currently in the works are anticipated to ship with $29.95 suggested retail prices.
All titles are being distributed by DVD International, and are carried by national and regional retail chains including Good Guys, Tower Records, The Wiz and Laserland, and online at Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, 800.com, DVDPlanet.com and CDNow.com.
Meanwhile, VM Labs said at least 15 Nuon-enhanced DVD movie titles would hit retail shelves this year, led by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment's Bedazzled. Four to five additional Nuon titles are expected from the studio this year.
The Bedazzled DVD, which is a standard DVD with Nuon-enhanced sections, will go on sale March 13 at a $26.98 suggested retail price.
Nuon features on the disc include Viddies, which offers vignettes of movie sequences, as well as abridged commentary from actors and directors, and Gamma Zooms, which allows close-ups of still images with no loss of resolution and enhanced scene selection.
NPD's Top 20 Best-Selling Video Game Titles Of 2000 / Ranked by retail unit sales|
Rank |
TITLE (PLATFORM)Publisher |
Released |
Avg. Price |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
POKEMON SILVER (GBC) Nintendo Of America |
Oct.'00 |
$27 |
|
2 |
POKEMON GOLD (GBC) Nintendo Of America |
Oct.'00 |
$27 |
|
3 |
POKEMON YELLOW (GBOY) Nintendo Of America |
Oct.'99 |
$26 |
|
4 |
POKEMON STADIUM (N64) Nintendo Of America |
Mar.'00 |
$59 |
|
5 |
TONY HAWKS PRO SKATR2 (PSX) Activision |
Sep.'00 |
$40 |
|
6 |
LEGEND ZELDA: MAJORA'S (N64) Nintendo Of America |
Oct.'00 |
$60 |
|
7 |
TONY HAWKS PRO SKATER (PSX) Activision |
Sep.'99 |
$30 |
|
8 |
GRAN TURISMO 2 (PSX) Sony Computer Entertainment |
Dec.'99 |
$32 |
|
9 |
POKEMON BLUE (GBOY) Nintendo Of America |
Sep.'98 |
$25 |
|
10 |
POKEMON RED (GBOY) Nintendo Of America |
Sep.'98 |
$25 |
|
11 |
WWF SMACKDOWN! (PSX) THQ |
Mar.'00 |
$40 |
|
12 |
TONY HAWKS PRO SKATER (N64) Activision |
Mar.'00 |
$49 |
|
13 |
POKEMON TRADING CARD (GBC) Nintendo Of America |
Apr.'00 |
$25 |
|
14 |
SUPER MARIO BROS. DLX (GBC) Nintendo Of America |
May'99 |
$28 |
|
15 |
MADDEN NFL 2001 (PSX) Electronic Arts |
Aug.'00 |
$41 |
|
16 |
MARIO PARTY 2 (N64 ) Nintendo Of America |
Jan.'00 |
$50 |
|
17 |
PERFECT DARK (N64) Nintendo Of America |
May'00 |
$58 |
|
18 |
WWF SMACKDOWN 2 (PSX) THQ |
Nov.'00 |
$41 |
|
19 |
FINAL FANTASY IX (PSX) Square EA |
Nov.'00 |
$40 |
|
20 |
WWF NO MERCY (N64) THQ |
Nov.'00 |
$60 |
|
Source: NPD TRSTS Video Games Service Kristin Barnett-von Korff (516) 625-2482 cTWICE 2000 |
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