On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that it has licensed Creative Technology's Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) for the use of several studio-quality sound effects. Those effects, including flange, chorus, EQ, and environmental reverberation will be added to Microsoft's release of DirectX 8.0 (DirectX 7.0 is almost done and adding the extensions would only push back DX 7's release) through DirectSound and DirectMusic. The licensing deal will help game developers write for the Windows environment and possibly give Creative the upper hand over its competitors.

　　"Adding the power of Creative's outstanding EAX audio technology to DirectX offers developers much greater control of environmental sound parameters that intensify the gaming and entertainment experience,'' said Kevin Bachus, group product manager for DirectX at Microsoft.

　　"The combination of EAX technology and DirectX will further solidify EAX as a popular PC audio standard moving forward,'' said George Thorn, director of developer relations at Creative. "The proliferation of EAX technology and high-quality PC audio will also, we believe, inevitably increase sales of hardware audio accelerators such as Creative's Sound Blaster Live! family of products.''