Alienware posts

PC maker Dell bought Miami-based gaming PC company Alienware back in 2006 and since the Alienware brand has continued to be used by Dell as their main brand to sell PCs to hardcore gamers. Today at the Tokyo Game Show, Alienware has revamped almost their entire line of PCs with four all new desktop models (such as the new Aurora model above) as well as a 15 inch version of their high powered gaming laptop.

One of the most interesting things about these new products is what's not inside them. In a phone briefing to Big Download earlier this week, Alienware confirmed that their current product line that is announced today will not have any AMD processors. Alienware simply feels that Intel's current line-up of Core i7 processors outperform AMD's current line up. Alienware will still give gamers options to put in AMD's ATI Radeon graphics chips.

Check out Alienware's new products after the jump:

As we approach the start of the Tokyo Game Show, gaming PC maker Alienware continues to tease us with images about what they will be announcing at the event later this week. They have now issued a new teaser image that looks like some space ships making its way through the stars . . . or are they.

Alienware has already released not one but two teaser videos via YouTube with some pretty high production values about their upcoming product launch. Hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer as the Tokyo Game Show is set to open its doors on Wednesday in our time zone.

3D gaming is suddenly in vogue lately. Nvidia has been really pushing its 3D Vision technology for PC games (with supported monitors) and event console gaming has been paying more attention to 3D tech lately. Now a report claims that the two big PC companies, HP and Dell, are getting ready to release 3D-enabled laptops.

The Digitimes web site claims via unnamed sources that HP and Dell have placed orders for a 3D laptop made with technology by a company called Wistron (Specifics about the deal, including the number of laptops and their cost, are not revealed) If true it's likely that HP and Dell will release the laptops with an eye towards the hardcore PC gaming market. The story also claims that Lenovo and Sony are in talks with Wistron for a similar order. The big question is whether the consumer will see 3D as a must-have feature for PC games or just an unneeded novelty.

Earlier this week, Dell's Alienware gaming PC unit picked up the pace on the hints of their upcoming major announcements by relaunching their allpowerful.com site and releasing a YouTube teaser video. Today they have launched a second video teaser on YouTube that's . . . well, we are still scratching our heads over it, quite frankly.

What is known is that the announcements are coming on September 24 at the Tokyo Game Show which is normally a place just for console game announcements. Hopefully we can get a better idea of what Alienware has in mind before they unleash whatever it is they are planning to unleash (yeah, we know it will be some new PCs and laptops with some kind of new design but it's still fun to speculate).

Dell's Alienware gaming PC unit is prepping for some major announcements and today they have relaunched their allpowerful.com web site to serve as a teaser to their future plans. The last time they made such a big deal about upcoming products it was for their Alienware Area 51 M17x laptop which was revealed last June at E3.

Alienware is taking an unusual move by making their big announcements at the Tokyo Game Show on September 24. That consumer-trade show is almost all console game oriented so having something that will likely be about PC gaming will be something different. You can also see a YouTube video which has even more teasers after the jump. By the way, those alien letters above . . . they spell out something that sounds sort of dire.

Vogster Entertainment's FPS MMO CrimeCraft has been available in its final launch form for a few weeks now but this week the developer/publisher announced their first plans to expand the game with new content along news of a new player tournament. The tournament begins today and runs through October 15. After the tournament players listed in the leaderboards will be put into a rando drawing for prizes. The grand prize will be a new Alienware Area 51 M17x laptop.

The first major content update will be released sometime in October and will include a new NPC gang, a new PvE mode where players go up against AI gang bosses across 14 maps, a new loot system for PvP modes and an in-game newspaper that will "contain player-generated content and proclaim the victories and defeats" of CrimeCraft players.

[via email press release]

Remember back at QuakeCon in August during Alienware's presentation when their reps said to expect some new announcements soon-ish? Well the gaming PC arm of Dell just sent over a teaser image that hints about the design direction of Alienware's upcoming PCs. More info on that direction is just days away.

In the meantime, the company has just announced that their Alienware TacX gaming PC mouse and their TacX gaming PC keyboard are now on sale. As we reported back at QuakeCon, the two new peripherals represent part of a new push to release new Alienware-branded PC gaming products to challenge other companies like Logitech, Razer and SteelSeries. Both the new mouse and keyboard sell for $99.99 each.

QuakeCon 2009 served as a place where a few PC hardware companies revealed some new products to the public and even one secret reveal to a few attendees. One was Dell's Alienware unit who recently expanded from making gaming PCs into also making some peripherals as well. Alienware has already released their own monitor and headset but at QuakeCon they debuted two upcoming items that are not scheduled to be sold until the end of the month.

The Alienware Tactics Keyboard and The Alienware Tactics PC Mouse are both designed to be on the high end of market. The keyboard has features such as media controls on top. The mouse features programmable buttons and up to 5000 dpi sensitivity. Both the mouse and keyboard products will be priced at $99 each when they are released. During a QuakeCon Alienware presentation it was hinted that the company will also have some big announcements coming in about four weeks.

Meanwhile AMD invited a few PC hardware specific web sites to get a sneak peak at their upcoming ATI DirectX11 graphics card, currently code named "Evergreen". AMD was very secretive about the whole affair; according to Legit Reviews the company didn't even show the card itself. It was running in a PC card that had a side window but even that was shrouded in spray adhesive. AMD showed a few DirectX11 SDK demos as well as the Wolfenstein demo (which is DirectX9 based) but the presentation was mainly to show that their DirectX11 card is indeed up and running. It's likely it will be released around the same time as Windows 7's shipment to stores in late October.

The PC Perspective QuakeCon event showed off a brief and so far unreleased trailer for DiRT 2, the upcoming racing game from Codemasters. DiRT 2 is so far the only upcoming PC game confirmed to be running under DirectX11 and the video showed off how the PC version of the game, due out in December, looks while under DirectX11. The brief video showed off some very impressive and realistic looking graphics; in fact they looked almost pre-rendered. We will likely be hearing more about DirectX11 and game support in the coming weeks.

A little while ago Dell decided to make its sister company Alienware its sole gaming PC subsidiary (its own gaming PC line under the XPS brand has been changed to be more of a high end consumer brand than a gaming PC brand). Gamasutra decided to chat with Alienware's president Arthur Lewis and senior VP Frank Azor on their views of gaming PC hardware and PC gaming in general.

One topic in the interview is if a gaming PC needs to truly be super-expensive theses days. Even a few years ago it was thought that a high-end gaming PC could cost $4,000 or $5,000. Lewis states, "I do think that there's been a shift in price bands, but I still think that there is a very important space for that enthusiast and hardcore gamer. Do I think that person needs to spend $4,000 now? No. Probably somewhere between $1,500 and $2,500, would be my guess."

They also talk about their support of the PC Gaming Alliance and how their reports, which show that PC gaming is still growing overall, may be changing some people's minds about the state of the industry. Azor states, "I think already you see some of the perceptions shifting. Some of the companies are reinvesting into PC gaming, where we felt some abandonment a few years ago."