“Our manufacturing schedule has been met thus far and we’re now set to have a retail launch of the P5 in the fourth quarter,” noted David Devor, Vice President of Marketing for Essential Reality.
“This is a wonderful milestone. We have conducted numerous focus groups along the way and have closely aligned our development effort with the feedback we have received, making continuous refinements and improvements to meet the needs of the consumer,” added Devor. “So much time and effort has gone into ensuring we deliver a quality product that is fun to use, and meets consumer expectations - all in time for the important holiday shopping season.”
Based upon Essential Reality’s proprietary bend sensor and tracking technologies, the P5 will be the first widely available, hand-worn controller to give users total intuitive interaction with 3-D environments. While the P5 can function in “mouse-mode” right out of the box, it is designed to deliver an enhanced experience that frees PC game players from the constraints of having to utilize complicated keyboard and mouse combinations. As a result, while the P5 will work with almost any PC game, its true power is fully realized when used in concert with games that have been especially enabled for it.
The MSRP for the premier edition of the P5, compatible with the PC, is $149 and the product will come bundled with three P5-enabled game titles (soon to be announced). Additional software “patches” which consumers can use to P5-enable existing popular PC games will be available at the time of product release. The Company plans to introduce a number of additional patches and/or bundles over the next six months. This is all in advance of a console-based edition of the P5 expected to be introduced during the second quarter of 2003.
About the P5
With its initial product family - the P5 - Essential Reality is focusing on developing, manufacturing and distributing next-generation 3-D peripherals for the PC/Mac, console gaming and professional user communities. Essential Reality anticipates the P5 will dramatically change the way humans interact with computers and game consoles. Color images of the P5 can be seen HERE.
The P5 uses Essential Reality’s proprietary bend sensor and tracking technologies to enable full interaction with a 3-D environment. A USB based product, the first generation P5 is designed for compatibility with the Microsoft Windows 98, Windows ME and MS 2000 operating systems. Additionally, Essential Reality expects the P5™ will be compatible with the Microsoft XP and the MAC OSX operating system, as well as the popular game consoles.