It seems like we’re flying at light speed these days. We had a very successful CES. The booth was packed and the Novint Falcon dropped lots of jaws (as always), despite our location in a back corner of the Sands. The press continues to give us high marks. CNET put Veronica Belmont’s video demo of the Falcon on their front page, listing us a one of the best things at CES (please check it out on our home page if you haven’t seen it). Many people told us we were the most exciting thing they saw at the show. We were even named to the list of Top 5 Coolest Gadgets at CES by TechEBlog.
Our preorder website has launched and demand for the Limited Edition Falcon is also keeping us busy. After working out a few kinks in the system, it is now operating at full capacity. We’re incredibly proud and excited about achieving this milestone and appreciate all the interest and support we’ve received from you.
Novint is exhibiting at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco in March, and will also be holding a special session for developers Thursday, March 8th which will provide an overview on how to develop games and mods for the Falcon. We’ll also be releasing details on our Developer Program and SDK in the next few weeks, which is something many of you have been waiting for. While we can’t let the cat out of the bag just yet, we think everyone will be happy with the news.
We’re adding new games to our roster and expect to have a bunch of great content at launch, with even more to come out after launch. It is difficult to describe the concept of touch in computing without trying it directly. Words really never quite convey how powerful it is. Our new videos help, we think, but at the end of the day: touching is believing. To that end, we’re planning lots of hands-on events for our launch, so people can experience the WOW we know the technology delivers. We’ll be announcing more details on this soon, but in the meantime, if you want to lobby for an event in your town, let us know.
With only five months to launch, we’ve got a lot of stuff going on, so check this site for lots of new announcements in the coming months. The big push through GDC will be on software and games, and we have quite a few announcements and press releases to make between now and March 5th, so check the site and blog often through that time.
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16 comments:
re: spell checker
I just got a note from a reader on a spelling error -- thank you.
For anyone interested, I just listed the Falcon on Ebay for international shipping. I will ship to you after Novint ships to me following June 18th.
Nice work on getting the rights to several of those games listed in the PR today? Any plans to try and get the rights to more "major/significant" games, rather than the smaller packaged games?
Here are a few concerns I have that I would like you to address.
(1) Initially, way back, I believe Novint had plans to sell the Falcon for a $100 price tag. With the $239 price tag, do you think this will significantly reduce sales of the product? The $239 price tag is comparable to the Nintendo Wii which at this point in time has much better games to go along with it (meaning Nintendo has much more sophisticated games).
(2) I read in a recent Novint blog that the marketing campaign is highly reliant on "word of mouth." While I do believe that this will enhance sales, there seems to be a need to get out there to the public and market this product actively, especially considering that the launch is less than six months away.
re: games
Thank you for reading the news - Novint has made some exciting partnerships in the gaming world, a few of which we just made public. Check out our website for more details.
As for future partnerships, we're planning to touch-enable a variety of high-quality games from many different developers, both large and small.
re: marketing the Falcon
Again, to be clear, this forum is not a place where Novint can present any aspects of its business plan in detail. This is primarily because, as a public company, Novint is subject to a variety of SEC restrictions on disclosure.
If you are interested in reading information in the public domain, please visit our website for a variety of links to internal and external material on Novint Technologies.
Having said all that, we do plan to "get out there to the public and market this product actively," as you suggest. The comment on word-of-mouth was not meant to be portrayed as Novint's marketing strategy - it was meant to illustrate that actually trying the Falcon is a powerful experience, and it makes sense to harness the excitement it can create.
re: price of the Falcon
At launch, we anticipate the Falcon will retail for $239. However, like most technology products, the Falcon will probably come down in price as the sales volumes increase.
Great news and great post on the blog! For the person complaining about the $239 price tag....the Falcon isn't just a joystick....its a robot that gives the user an added dimension to the computer world. $239 isn't all that much of a stretch when you see people buying games for $60 a piece or shelling out $120/year to play games like WOW.
Keep the announcements coming!!!
re: Falcon price
I wanted to clarify one more thing about the Falcon's pricing.
The $239 price (the launch price) is for a Limited Edition Falcon Bundle that includes not only exclusive limited edition hardware, but also 24 minigames, an additional game download (valued up to $19.95), and more.
The Novint Falcon alone, however, is designed to retail for around $100 in mass-market volumes. What that means is that once more and more people (hopefully) buy the Falcon, we expect the price will drop significantly. This is a pricing trend that countless other technology products follow.
In light of the advertising/bomb scare fiasco in Boston, I think Novint should leverage the moment to lauch their own compaign. Novint could lease billboard space, place a picture of the Falcon on it and state: ATTENTION CONCERNED CITIZENS - THIS IS NOT A BOMB. IT IS AN ADVERTISEMENT. DO NOT FEAR.
This would get a huge reaction. p.s. billboards are cheap (and safe - do not fear.
Stating the obvious: Alliance w/at least one of the top three game box manufactures is probably necessary for any real success???
great news guys!
(and nice coverage in the Journal)
As a wider range of companies look to distinguish themselves and compete with the Wii, I think this is great timing.
e
What journal are you talking about? Could someone please send the link. Thanks.
re: Falcon system requirements
The following are the minimum and recommended system requirements for the Novint Falcon Bundle:
Minimum System Requirements*: (For NMB Bundle)
Processor: 1.0 GHz Processor
OS: Windows XP/Vista
XP Service Pack: SP2 or later
Graphic card: 128Mb 3D hardware accelerated graphics card
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c
Hard Drive: 1.5 GB free disk space
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Other: CD-ROM Drive, USB 2.0 connection
* The final minimum system requirements may vary from these values slightly after final testing.
Recommended System Requirements: (For NMB Bundle)
Processor: 2.4 GHz Processor
OS: Windows, XP/Vista
XP Service Pack: SP2 or later
Graphic card: 256Mb 3D hardware accelerated graphics card
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c
Hard Drive: 1.5 GB free disk space
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Other: Internet Connection, CD/DVD-ROM Drive, USB 2.0 connection
Joohoo! Just read the news an SDK free for non-commercial news will be released. Me is happy about this!
Now waiting till the device will be available in Europe...
Jorrit - I can ship it to you...
see my ebay listing...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Novint-Falcon-Limited-Edition-Bundle-Beats-Wii_W0QQitemZ220081041831QQihZ012QQcategoryZ62054QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item220081041831
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