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Live!Ware is designed to provide the newest enhancements and applications for both Sound Blaster Live! and the newly announced Sound Blaster Live! Value audio cards. Creative's arsenal of more than 400 R&D engineers continue to develop and extend the power and potential of the EMU10K1(TM) processor used in the Sound Blaster Live! family, and Creative plans to continuously offer added features and functions in the coming months on its dedicated Web site http://www.sblive.com.

``Live!Ware is a revolutionary marketing program that matches the revolutionary spirit of Sound Blaster Live!,'' said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and chief executive officer of Creative Technology Ltd. ``Technology doesn't stand still. Neither does Creative or Sound Blaster Live! The capabilities of Sound Blaster Live! will grow with time as Creative unleashes more and more of the untapped power, performance and functionality inherent in the EMU10K1 design. Even with the new major enhancements we are announcing today with Live!Ware, we are only just beginning to scratch the surface!''

New Features and Functions

Announced today, as part of the Live!Ware program, are the following new features and functions for the Sound Blaster Live! family, which are planned to be released over the next few months as downloadable upgrades, beginning September 1998. These features and functions are planned to work with the existing, currently shipping Sound Blaster Live! and Sound Blaster Live! Value without any additional hardware.

    *  32 Accelerated 3D Voices: To meet the future needs of game developers

       and gamers, Creative plans to provide more accelerated 3D voices -

       extending Sound Blaster Live! hardware acceleration support from an

       existing eight to an incredible 32 DirectSound(R) 3D streams, each

       supporting up to 16-bit, 48 KHz fidelity.  This paves the way for

       developers to support more 3D voices in upcoming games and to more

       fully realize the true potential of Sound Blaster Live! and

       Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX(TM)).  This new implementation,

       combined with Microsoft DirectSound Voice Management Property Set -

       which lets game developers manage 3D sound buffers more effectively -

       will result in a better overall gaming experience and performance.

    *  512 PCI Voice Synthesis: Music hobbyists who want a huge palette of

       voices for music composition will be able to utilize an unheard of 512

       voices - an upgrade from the currently available 256 voices.  This new

       capability, combined with the 64 hardware voices of the EMU10K1, makes

       the Sound Blaster Live! the most powerful and efficient MIDI

       synthesizer currently available.

    *  Connectivity with Surround Receivers: By adding proprietary surround

       sound encoding technology to the Sound Blaster Live!, Creative will

       allow its end-users to connect their Sound Blaster Live! or Sound

       Blaster Live! Value audio cards to their existing surround sound home

       stereo systems.  This breakthrough enhancement enables users to play

       back their 3D audio games and Environmental Audio titles on their

       existing home receiver and speakers, greatly enhancing the flexibility

       and potential of their computer entertainment system.  In addition,

       users can now play their existing DVD and VCD titles in full surround

       sound, without switching their existing set-up.  To enjoy the full

       surround experience of Dolby Digital (AC3) on the PC, users should

       consider the new Desktop Theater 5.1 system, designed by Cambridge

       SoundWorks.

    *  2,500 High Quality Instruments: To complete the professional desktop

       music set-up offered by Sound Blaster Live!, Creative plans to make

       available an amazing 500 SoundFont banks consisting of 2,500

       instruments.

    *  Vienna(TM) SoundFont(R) Studio: Creative also plans to make available

       its award winning Vienna SoundFont Studio for the Sound Blaster Live!

       The Vienna SoundFont Studio editor is a powerful sampling and editing

       PC tool providing functions similar to today's professional music

       samplers.  Combined with Creative's newly-available 2,500 instruments

       and SoundFont banks, desktop musicians will have enormous creative

       power, have the editing tools and a huge library of musical

       instruments, and be able to access up to 32 MB of SoundFont banks in

       system RAM.

Benefits to Customers, Developers, Partners

Today's announcement highlights Creative's on-going commitment to listen and respond to the needs of its customers. The features and functions announced today have tremendous value. However, to launch its Live!Ware program, Creative plans to offer these features free of charge to its registered end users. With the Live!Ware program, customers will be assured that their investment in Sound Blaster Live! is protected - with ever- increasing functionality and performance.

Live!Ware answers the needs of software developers as well. The rapidly growing number of software developers who support Sound Blaster Live! and Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) - now numbering well over 100 - will benefit as they now have a platform that provides plenty of room to grow. This allows them to introduce enhanced audio features in their new and existing games and to be assured of instant deployment of the latest technology to an ever expanding installed base.

Creative plans to also include a cost-effective on-line marketing support system via the dedicated Web site (http://www.sblive.com.) to effectively equip its channel partners with the latest tutorials, demos, channel materials, product updates and channel programs. This support system will continuously assist Creative's channel partners to provide enhanced customer and technical support and enhance customer satisfaction. In addition, the channels will be able to effectively cross-sell other Creative products including Cambridge SoundWorks(R) speakers; graphics cards such as the new Graphics Blaster(TM) RIVA TNT; and Creative's PC-DVD solutions.

Creative Technology Ltd. develops, manufactures and markets a wide array of advanced multimedia solutions for the PC, entertainment, education, music and productivity tools markets. Creative's products are marketed through the OEM, systems integrator and retail channels under a variety of trademarks, including the ``Blaster'' family name. With the new Sound Blaster(R) PCI standard, Creative has produced a solution that utilizes a combination of hardware and software for near-perfect compatibility with existing DOS and Windows titles. Creative's corporate headquarters and primary manufacturing are based in Singapore, with sales, distribution and research and development being carried out through an extensive global network of subsidiaries located in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

This announcement relates to products whose launch are in the United States of America. The product names, contents, prices and availability may differ elsewhere in the world according to local factors and requirements.

Sound Blaster is a registered trademark and Blaster is a trademark of Creative Technology Ltd. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Sound Blaster is a registered trademark and Environmental Audio, EMU10K1, Environmental Audio Extensions, EAX, Creative Multi Speaker Surround are trademarks of Creative Technology Ltd. in the U.S and other countries.

E-mu Systems and SoundFont are registered trademarks of E-mu Systems, Inc. Cambridge SoundWorks is a registered trademark of Cambridge SoundWorks, Inc. All other product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognized as such.

Safe Harbor for Forward Looking Statements:

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth herein are forward looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others: potential fluctuations in quarterly results due to the seasonality of Creative's business and the difficulty of projecting such fluctuations; reductions in the market value of products sold by Creative, including increases in supply or declines in demand or prices for CD-ROM or DVD drives, board and chip-level products, and software products; the short product cycles that characterize most of Creative's products; the inherent uncertainties of software development schedules; the increasing proliferation of sound functionality at the chip and operating system levels; Creative's reliance on sole sources for many of its chips and other key components; the timely ramp, delivery and market acceptance of new products, including Creative's next generation audio, graphics accelerator, CD-ROM and DVD drives and communications products; the volatility of share prices for companies in Creative's industry and the effect of those prices or other events beyond Creative's control; and other risk factors described in Creative's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the past twelve months.

SOURCE: Creative Technology Ltd.