Creative gets in the licensing game

SAN JOSE-BASED Auzentech has become the first non-Creative Labs manufacturer to use Creative Labs audio chips.

Dubbed the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1, its main attraction will be the Creative X-Fi chipset sat at the heart of the board.

Auzentech makes high end products with top-spec connectors, converters and expandability. The new card will support EAX, obviously, but also Dolby Digital Live encoding.

Said the chaps at Auzentech, ""When you're playing games, the Auzen X-Fi Prelude soundcard will output the best 3D audio and latest EAX effects. And when you're listening to music or watching movies, you'll enjoy an audiophile-quality experience."

This marks an interesting departure in strategy for Creative Labs. Previously, the company has been content to sell its own-brand products in its own boxes. But this move indicates a desire to see a larger ecosystem built up around its products, and the logical extension of this move would be to see Creative become the 'audio processing unit' provider to a number of board partners who would build their own products around it - the same model that Nvidia and ATI operate on.

Expect to see the card towards the end of May. Music to our ears.