Macromedia Inc has formed a new consumer entertainment business unit and spun it out with its own web site to feature games and other content developed using Macromedia’s tools. Shockwave.com will be run by Stephen Fields, who joins the unit from his position as senior VP at Disney Interactive.
In a flurry of announcements yesterday to coincide with its international user conference, San Francisco-based Macromedia also announced that the entertainment web site at shockwave.com will include two Macromedia tools: the Shockwave Remote, an enhanced search engine that also enables users to save and send Shockwave content; and Shockmachine, which is an engine for playing games, cartoons, music other media. Macromedia intends to charge a one-time fee of $19.95 for Shockmachine.
The new web site, which will launch later this summer, will feature content from the likes of Comedy Central, Fox Interactive, GT Interactive, Sega of America and 3D Groove. It will also include various devices to increase stickiness, including personalization and other community-building tools.
The company also announced a new version of its Flash development environment and said that it will license the code to its Flash Player free of charge from now on, which is a fairly common licensing model. Flash 4, which supports MP3, will ship next month for about $300.
