The new imVOX voice chat software allows up to thirty video gamers to voice chat for free, while the paid subscription option allows for up to 250 gamers at a time to voice chat for $24.99 a year. Ayalogic, the developer behind imVOX has announced that imVOX is currently in public beta and is available for download now. imVOX is compatible with Microsoft’s Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 but is not currently capable of running on Apple’s own MacOS X. Support for Macs is allegedly in the pipeline. Integration with social networks, such as Facebook Connect and Twitter is also planned.
According to Ayalogic CEO Mike Rojas, "We want to make it easier to enable gamers to connect with voice. There will be no more begging a friend to leverage their voice server to have a little extra fun in whatever game you want to play. Our architecture and technology will allow us to bring rapid innovation around communication services to the gaming market. The time has come to bring together to merge the benefits of embedded voice and dedicated gaming voice clients into a single solution."
The advantage imVOX is touting on its download page is that with imVOX, the voice fonts can alter your voice to make you sound cooler or more sinister. On the technical side according to the press release is that "The imVOX network of servers is set up on Amazon's Web Services platform, utilizing EC2 for the main servers and S3 for backup and persistent storage - a first in the consumer game voice market. This solution allows for a low cost, redundant, scalable and cost effective infrastructure that passes its benefits for reliability and price directly to the gamer." It is worth noting that imVOX is the first voice app we heard of utilizing cloud computing technology. For more on cloud computing and its risks see our article IBM survey busts Cloud Computing bubble with a "security" pin?.
ImVOX will compete directly with Xfire, Ventrilo and to a point - Steam as the gaming communication is considered. If you add TeamSpeak to the mix, it is clear that this market is starting to burst with competition. Questions Ayalogic will have to answer early is whether or not there is room for another voice chat service and how many customers will opt for the paid subscription. Is Ayalogic giving too much away in its free package? Then again, you can’t exactly beat the price.
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