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HP to Acquire Voodoo PC
mytrip writes to mention a News.com article outlining HP's acquisition of Voodoo PC, the high-end gaming computer maker. Following Dell's purchase of Alienware this past March, it would seem that the big computer assemblers are gearing up for a gaming skirmish. "In the weeks prior to that acquisition, Rahul Sood predicted the looming deal after having similar acquisition-related conversations with Dell Chairman Michael Dell, he later revealed on his blog. Rahul Sood will become chief technologist in HP's game division, and Ravi Sood will take on the role of chief strategist, Rahul Sood wrote on the blog. Voodoo will maintain a presence in Calgary, Alberta, where the company is currently headquartered. The deal is expected to close in November, HP said in a press release."
Voodoo will be doodoo now.
How ya like dat?
all your gaming pc's are belong to us
Good thing no one tried to leak this story ahead of time ;)
Bark less. Wag more.
are they gonna make like difficult for the Voodoo purchasers as much as the made life difficult for the Compaq purchasers, who now have to deal with HorrablyPathetic tech support?
Hmm. Who's that leave for Gateway to purchase? Falcon?
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Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
But I don't think I'll be buying from them. Real enthusiasts build their own. ;) Still, I look forward to seeing what they come up with and at what price. Especially in the laptops.
by buying a computer manufactuer than is even more over priced and has customer service issues.
I guess Falcon is next
Do you have to buy someone in order to make a good product? I mean, it's not really that hard to make a gaming PC. I guess by buying someone out, they get to use the name, with brings in customers, but I really don't see the big draw. HP is a big enough company that if they put out a real gaming machine, with really good specs for a good price, I'm sure it wouldn't go unnoticed.
Having said that, what's with all the big companies wanting to get into gaming PCs? That's a very small market, and with all the consoles coming out with HD, I don't see PC gaming getting a larger market (although I don't know if it will shrink). I just checked Voodoo PC, and their cheapest rig starts at $2800. For that price you could buy a PS3, XBox360, and a Wii, oh, and a ton of games, and still come out on top. I realize that there's a few games that are just better on PC (RTS and FPS), but seriously, I don' see a lot of people wanting to spend that much money on a computer.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Does Voodoo work on Aliens? I thought Voodoo only worked if you believed in it. Personally I think Dell got the better deal, but hey.. it's close.
Give me a fish, I shall eat well for a day. Teach me to fish, and I will eat well until some idiot patents it.
<malcolm in the middle>Why must you destroy everything I love?</malcolm in the middle>
Come to think of it, most of my best quotes are from that show.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Obviously, HP management said "These PCs are for tweakers" and they heard "leakers".
They thought that they could use Voodoo to find and punish the leakers. I see visions of HP management sticking needles into PCs as we speak: "Oh YEAH - TAKE THAT! AND THAT! AND THAT! BWAHAHAHAAHA!"
www.eFax.com are spammers
What a nincompoop!
HP w/ AMD is actually a good computer. With Voodoo, they can line up against Dell better.
As the person quoted said, it is a good match.
Now, when you order that VoodooPC, it comes with a free phone tap kit! Fun for the whole family (though unless you're a member of the NSA, make sure you get those warrants first!)
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
I hear that the new machines will have anti-cheating technology built in. With the integrated keylogger, persistent dial modem, and gigabit snitch-on-lan ports, the risk of anyone cheating in online games is a thing of the past. Also included is a one year subscription to a fully customized* client version of a popular identity fraud monitoring service.
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The reason why most of us gamers choose companies other than Dell/HP/IBM for our rigs (if we even buy prebuilt PCs) is for their components.
We really don't want some crappy Dell or HP proprietary motherboards or proprietary memory in our PCs (don't even get me started on the onboard video).
Personally, I usually build my PCs from scratch, but will every once in a while buy a prebuilt PC with the exact components I want.
The issue is whether gamers continue to support Alienware and Voodoo, or come to believe that they've sold out to soul-less conglomerates and look for another niche player to buy from. Can huge corporations succeed in gaming culture/counterculture? Microsoft would argue that it would. Note that much of its gaming success has been acquired (i.e. Bungie).
It'll really save time when they want to track down that pesky leak.
It was a nice run, and good while it lasted. Thankfully the gamers who want a good rig but don't have time to build their own still have Falcon Northwest and a few other companies to fall back on.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
It seems that we finally have a news story that fits Slashdot business model:
1) Build a business like Alienware or Voodoo PC that sells high-performance gaming PC's, and sell them at a premium price.
2) Get bought out by a white box PC manufacturer like HP or Dell.
3) Profit!
You better hurry up, though, since the only other big PC manufacturers that haven't gone on a gaming PC buying spree yet are IBM/Lenovo and Gateway.
At least this is a sign that the mainstream computer makers are taking gaming a little more seriously. I happen to prefer gaming on my PC than on a game platform like XBox or PS3, but then again, I prefer games like Half Life 2 and Eve-Online. I appreciate being able to have one big gizmo on my desk for playing games and making a living. Playing on PCs also gives me the capability to upgrade my hardware (and software) to improve my gaming experience rather than just having to wait for the XBOX 720 to come out and then have to fight for the first hundred thousand units delivered to market.
So I'm happy that HP, Dell and others are jumping into the gaming market. It should mean better, cheaper products for gamers (although perhaps not from HP or Dell).
Also, since my work involves using game and VR technology for distance education, it will mean that the technology gaming and VR use may be more acceptable to the education market since those tools will be making their way into the standard computer lines.
As parent says, I'll still be rolling my own gaming/working computer, but I might start having more choices.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Does anyone find it funny that Rahul Sood mocked the Alienware purchase by Dell, and now we have this? I guess his mocking of the "creative" name mix of Dell + Alienware = Dellienware will now bite him in the butt with the newly named HooPoo.
They will use these voodoo dolls to threaten any board members who don't go along with future pretexting.
Does that make me a crumudgeon?
Man, stay away from the Voodoo Rush. It's supposed to play Tomb Raider, accelerated in its own freakin' window. Not full screen! No, we're talking simultaneous 2D/3D here. Alas, I can attest to it barely achieving 20 FPS. Kind of unplayable when... Oh, wait.
Neon cases? Someone else's $700 video card? Is the game nerd segment of the market really that large? Or is it more of a case where you game nerds haven't realized what a huge margin premium you've been paying for that extra little performance bump?
Voodoo PC has name recognition for being the Lexus of gaming machines. Hence their $2,800 starting price. They've been on the leading edge of the curve for several years. So much that Maximum PC has interviewed them a few times about some of their techniques.
They lead the pack with everything from IDE cable folding (before rounded IDE cables) to implementing a gaming rig with no active cooling. And they've constantly pushed to the next level by custom-building parts for next-gen rigs. Some of the stuff that Voodoo PC was doing, you couldn't buy off the shelf.
Voodoo has been reviewed in everything from PC Mag to Playboy, Photo Pro and Cigar Aficianado. Buying a Voodoo PC is for the people who can suffer the excess of a custom name-plate on their PC.
Even now, when everyone is jumping in to the HTPC field, Voodoo is already one step ahead of the curve. Their HTPC has top of the line parts and no fans.
Seeing these guys get bought out just breaks my heart. It was long my dream to own a Voodoo PC, but that just went down the tubes today.
gateway?
ibm / Lenovo?
Sony?
Toshiba?
My shop does warranty work on HP's, and other machines. I know how big a piece of crap box they build, they are truly a proprietary piece of junk. . It will only be a matter of time before HP does the same thing Dell did, and turn a great machine into another proprietary piece of junk.
IF you can't be famous be infamous. But for GODS sake be something
but before they could finish the leak, they were overcome with inexplicable sharp, stabbing pains in their neck, chest and stomach.
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HP and Dell's acquisitions of Voodoo and Alienware, respectively, aren't signs of a looming gaming skirmish between companies.
They're just learning how to build computers fast enough to run Vista.
Rahul Sood (the president of Voodoo PC) has been keeping a blog for quite a while, and it's an extremely interesting read. Anyway, he announced the merger on his blog with a long writeup:- vampire-is-about-to-fly_28.html[/URL}
[URL]http://voodoopc.blogspot.com/2006/09/project
It's not often you have such a long, frank explenation from a president about the future of their company. Very cool.
Flying Cow?
A goal is a dream with a deadline
I heard those VooDoo PCs come with built-in "nano-microphones".
Simpy
Sorry, I don't think we're talking about the same HP. Do you mean Hewlett Packard, the company that sells printer ink cartridges?
Since when does their business model include selling computers? Wouldn't that just take away from their black, yellow, cyan, and magenta gold?
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
I find Bill & Ted's motherboards to be EXCELLENT!
Curious how HP is following Dell's lead in the marketplace. Also ironic that Voodoo's blog commentary about Dell and discussions with Michael were published at the same time as VooDoo was discussing being sold to HP. Perhaps some of the Voodoo comments about Dell were in fact motivated by competitive interest versus any real insight? More importantly, however, at Dell we continue to be about three steps ahead of both VooDoo and HP. They have a ways to go. Six months ago we acquired Alienware, the leader in this field; our own XPS line, which just celebrated its one year anniversary with a gaming competition, is a line of products that is already beginning to incorporate technologies from high-end gaming for high-end PCs (something HP-Voodoo hope to do). Seems to me the PC is really only personal again when the customer can customize their own product, directly with the manufacturer of the product. That is personal because consumers buy what they want and need versus what is on the shelf of some store or old tech being cleared from inventory. Dont know how that works for VooDoo under this scenario....but hope it does because access to a solid supply chain and economies of scale has preoccupied Voodoo for some time. We wish VooDoo well working up through the tech labs and product group to the efficient and operational effectiveness of the business leadership. Hopefully they succeed with some of their product "innovations." In our situation, we are committed to leadership on this front, with Michael and others at Dell having over a year head start on HPs venture into gaming. Michael and Kevin readily recognize the importance of technology and leadership in this field. Michael himself is an avid gamer, who has been meeting other gamers and speaking at gaming conferences, so we dont need to "make the case" inside our business. We expect to continue our business leadership. See our corporate blog at http://www.direct2dell.com/ for some video and information about gaming and the PC