Embody Introduces
Personalized Spatial Audio to the Xbox Ecosystem

IMMERSE GAME ENGINE PLUGINS

Personalized Spatial Rendering for Surround Sound, Higher-Order Ambisonics, and Object-based Audio

The New Frontier of Immersive Sound

Embody, the innovative spatial audio and AI technology company behind Immerse Gamepack FINAL FANTASY XIV Edition, announced their official enrollment in the Xbox Tools and Middleware Program. With this announcement, Xbox sound designers and engineers will have access to a new suite of personalized spatial audio production renderers that will dramatically expand their perception of what spatial audio in video games can be. 

As demand for immersive audio experiences in games increases, sound designers have had to contend with the limitations of existing tools when it comes to accurately translating those experiences to headphones. Although many fantastic mixes are created through stereo downmixing and generic HRTF rendering, they fall short of translating intricate spatial definition including height, depth, and rear imaging, for all users. 

Immerse Game Engine Plugins solve this challenge through cutting-edge advancements in neural AI, helmed by some of the foremost audio researchers in the industry. The plugins enable personalized spatial audio rendering of everything from Stereo to High-Order Ambisonics (HOA) and Object-based audio. The increased positional accuracy over headphones that Immerse provides yields not only a superior listening experience for the player, but also a way for developers to scale their immersive audio workflows when access to physical Surround Sound and Atmos studios is limited. 

While Universal HRTFs are useful for providing immersive audio to users at scale, Embody’s personalized approach to HRTF creation yields a significant improvement in spatial resolution. Immerse personalized HRTFs are generated from more than 10,000 unique identifiers for each individual, providing a level of granularity in the HRTF generation process that one-size-fits-all solutions, including nearest-neighbor matching, can’t hope to match. Moreover, by harnessing the power of AI and cloud computing Embody has created a scalable solution that is already seeing widespread use in the PC gaming market. 

“Since 2020, PC gamers have been using Immerse Personalized Spatial Audio to enhance their gaming experiences. We’re thankful to the Microsoft middleware team for enabling us to bring our technology to the Xbox platform, where it will unlock a new level of quality for immersive audio on console.”

• Ira Bolden, CMO - Embody

 Every game has a unique mix with unique potential for spatial audio expression. In fact, the creative potential of spatial audio in video game sound design has just barely been tapped. Immersive sound experiences should be informed by the mix, gameplay goals, and creative vision rather than the limitations of Universal rendering solutions. Embody collaborates closely with their studio partners to customize their HRTFs to the sound designer's exact desired sound field. This includes spatialization adjustments to front, rear, and sides to improve sound clarity based on considerations like camera perspective, listening position, off-screen activity, and even environment. The result is a spatial sound experience that is perfectly tailored to the individual needs and creative vision of the specific project.  

Since its founding in 2016, Embody has maintained the ambition to bring its personalized spatial audio technology to the console gaming market. Their enrollment in the Xbox Tools and Middleware Program marks a major milestone in that journey. Developers who are interested in learning more about Immerse Game Engine Plugins are encouraged to visit https://embody.co/gamedev or write to dev@embody.co.

About Embody

An upstart group of musicians, artists, and engineers dedicated to the advancement of spatial audio technology for all media. We’re creating the tools and technologies that are already being used by some of the greatest names in gaming, music, film, and television to create the next generation of immersive sound experiences.

Embody was founded in Nov 2016 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California with operations in North America, Japan, and Europe. For more information, follow Embody on X and Instagram, “Like” us on Facebook. Subscribe to Embody on YouTube to see and hear more about Embody products, and visit the website at www.embody.co. Immerse and Personalized Spatial Audio are trademarks or registered trademarks of EmbodyVR, Inc. in the US or other countries.