Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Vivox and NCsoft add voice to gaming

Online voice applications developer Vivox Inc. has entered into a partnership with Texas-based NCsoft North America to bring voice capabilities to the company's gaming and online content applications.

NCsoft North America is a subsidiary of Korea-based NCsoft Corp., and is the owner of several online game franchises including Lineage, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa and Dungeon Runner.

Under terms of the partnership, NCsoft will use Vivox's voice features within its online games through an NCsoft-branded communications portal. Features include voice fonts, voice mail and both in-game and out-of-game communications through traditional phones.

The deal is the third such partnership announced by Vivox this year. In February, the company announced a partnership with Sony Online Entertainment LLC for inclusion within that company's gaming platforms, including massive multiplayer online role-playing games Everquest and Star Wars: Galaxies. In March Vivox cut a deal with The Venue Network Inc., a North Carolina-based startup company developing online virtual meeting space technology.

Financial terms of the latest deal were not disclosed.

Vivox was founded in 2005 by its CEO Rob Seaver, COO James Toga and chairman Jeff Pulver, who is also founder of PulverMedia and the Voice on the Net trade show series, though he recently resigned his post as chairman of PulverMedia. The privately held company has raised $13.8 million over two rounds of funding, the most recent coming last November. Investors include California-based Benchmark Capital, and included existing investors Connecticut-based Canaan Partners and Newton-based GrandBanks Capital.