Irish firm creates portable device for computer games

A Cork-based product development company, EVTC, is to introduce a portable gaming device that can store up to 50 computer games, freeing game players from having to continually reload them onto their PCs.

The pocket-sized device, MyGameBank, is a plug and play peripheral that connects to either a PC or Macintosh computer by a cable. EVTC has also created a video phone that uses regular analogue phone lines, and a specialised "double" SIM card for mobiles that can halve roaming charges.

EVTC managing director Mr Gary Keefe said he got the idea for the gaming device, which has 20 gigabytes of memory to hold CDs, after slipping on computer game CDs left on the floor by his children. EVTC's team of engineers produced a basic prototype in three months and a working prototype a month later.

"Kids will love it and gamers will love it," he said.

Mr Keefe said the company is going after the lucrative gaming market, estimated at 100 million players worldwide and equals the global film industry in revenue. The Republic has a market of about 200,000 gamers, one of the highest per capita gaming markets.

He said the company is retaining rights to the Irish and British markets but is negotiating a distribution deal with "a large player" in the worldwide market.

According to Mr Keefe, there are no copyright problems involved in using MyGameBank because purchasers of a game are allowed to make back-up copies of their own disks.

He agrees that MyGameBank seems like an obvious solution to having to reload games into a PC. "[The idea] was just something that was there, but no one had put A and B together before."

MyGameBank is set for release in late October to early November, in time for the Christmas market, said Mr Keefe. The device will be priced at $199 (€235), which puts it below the critical $200 price point at which an item is seen to be an accessible consumer item rather than a luxury purchase.

MyGameBank is being manufactured in Asia but Mr Keefe is negotiating a manufacturing deal with an electronics company in Carrigaline, Co Cork, for the Irish and British devices.

EVTC employs two engineers in Cork and retains a number of consultants and engineers in Germany, Britain, Hong Kong and Korea.

The company is also planning two portable storage products that reuse the concept of MyGameBank but target the business and home office market.

One version, tentatively called ItsYourOffice, is aimed at professionals and "gives them the possibility to eliminate laptops", said Mr Keefe.

Since most people use laptops to transport, not produce, data while travelling, he said, the device would hold information and plug into any computer at the worker's destination.