Dec. 5-11, 2008 Volume 28 Number 38

Reprinted for web use with permission from the Austin Business Journal. ©2008, all rights reserved. Reprinted by Scoop ReprintSource 1-800-767-3263.

Peter Walker found inspiration for his company while watching his teenage son play video games.

Walker, a computer engineer and found-er of Vircion Inc., had long been fascinated by the Internet when it dawned on him that the Web could make gaming more mobile.

“The future would be where people could connect from anywhere,” he says. “I envisioned a product which could allow Matt to play anywhere.”

In 2006, Walker created technology that en-ables people to play video games across the Internet, paving the way for a new level of content delivery and interaction. Users play on their mobile devices the latest games that reside on their high-end game consoles, such as the PS3/PS2 and Xbox360.

Vircion’s Sero Virtualization Technology, which has a patent pending, was launched to positive reviews at the September 2008 Austin Game Developers Conference.

“Everyone was asking, ‘Where can we buy this now?’” Walker says.

Customers demand mobility, he says.“It is what drives today’s generations,” says Walk-

er, who has multiple graduate degrees in computer science and computer and electrical engineering from Brown University. “People want to be able to access their TV shows, games and media content from anywhere, any time.”

Vircion’s market research shows the product will be in demand if it’s affordable, Walker says. The company’s targeted price range is $199 to $300.

Although consumers with game consoles and broadband networks in their homes are the primary mar-ket, the company also targets other vertical markets:

■ E-commerce sites that sell or provide video game-related services and products, and want their customers to be able to try the games;

■ Game publishers and developers seeking new ways to get greater visibility of their content;

■ Game testing and development environments. Vir-cion’s product allows developers to easily share access to valuable development resources.

Walker has significant experience in high-per-formance networking, video compression and Web server development. His career includes years with IBM Research, where his work resulted in several pat-ents in computer architecture, and with the startup Vieo Inc. as principal engineer and staff scientist

serving as the lead design architect for the company’s sys-tem management product.

Walker credits Oz Becca, who has led the hard-ware development for the product since joining the venture as a partner, for the company’s technological achievements.

Vircion’s targeted solutions help businesses better reach their customers, while generating revenues from their investments at hotels, cafés, convention centers, shopping malls and other retail venues.

“Vircion also integrates the device into a social net-work — a first, to our knowledge,” Walker says. “Gaming is social, so we make it even more so.”

The Multi-Player Online Gaming Directory, or www.mpogd.com, a site dedicated to providing information on the industry, posted comments about Vircion’s success in enhancing gaming among friends.

“The real twist that Vircion provides is the ability to continue gaming sessions with your friends at home that don’t have the same console,” one post-er wrote. “Because the software is PC-based, there is no need to be tied to the same games or consoles any longer. This simple fact alone will dramatically increase the user base for the product, and could very well be cheaper than needing to buy additional games or con-soles just to play with friends.”

Such accolades reinforce Walker’s living room inspiration.

“The best ideas are products that bring to reality ideas that are disruptive, forcing a shift in industry thinking, and bring values to users that they anticipate would be a long way off,” Walker says. “The good news is that Sero is here now.”

TERRI SCHEXNAYDER | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

VIRCION PLAYS THE FIELD

GAMING AWARD

NICK SIMONITE / ABJ

Founder Peter Walker and his team at Vircion.

DEC. 5 -11, 2008 | AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL | austin.bizjournals.com TECH INNOVATION AWARDS | B7

Peter Walker found inspiration for his company while watching his teen-age son play video games.

Walker, a computer engineer and founder of Vircion Inc., had long been fascinated by the Internet when it dawned on him that the Web could make gaming more mobile.

“The future would be where people could connect from anywhere,” he says. “I envi-sioned a product which could allow Matt to play anywhere.”

In 2006, Walker created technology that enables people to play video games across the Internet, paving the way for a new level of content delivery and interac-tion. Users play on their mobile devices the latest games that reside on their high-end game consoles, such as the PS3/PS2 and Xbox360.

Vircion’s Sero Virtualization Technology, which has a patent pending, was launched to positive reviews at the September 2008 Austin Game Developers Conference.

“Everyone was asking, ‘Where can we buy this now?’” Walker says.

Customers demand mobility, he says.“It is what drives today’s generations,”

says Walker, who has multiple graduate degrees in computer science and computer

and electrical engineering from Brown Uni-versity. “People want to be able to access their TV shows, games and media content from anywhere, any time.”

Vircion’s market research shows the product will be in demand if it’s affordable, Walker says. The company’s targeted price range is $199 to $300.

Although consumers with game consoles and broadband networks in their homes are the primary market, the company also targets other vertical markets:

■ E-commerce sites that sell or provide video game-related services and products, and want their customers to be able to try the games;

■ Game publishers and developers seek-ing new ways to get greater visibility of their content;

■ Game testing and development envi-ronments. Vircion’s product allows devel-opers to easily share access to valuable development resources.

Walker has signifi cant experience in high-performance networking, video com-pression and Web server development. His career includes years with IBM Research, where his work resulted in several pat-ents in computer architecture, and with the startup Vieo Inc. as principal engineer

and staff scientist serving as the lead de-sign architect for the company’s system management product.

Walker credits Oz Becca, who has led the hardware development for the prod-uct since joining the venture as a partner, for the company’s technological achieve-ments.

Vircion’s targeted solutions help busi-nesses better reach their customers, while generating revenues from their invest-

ments at hotels, cafés, convention centers, shopping malls and other retail venues.

“Vircion also integrates the device into a social network — a fi rst, to our knowl-edge,” Walker says. “Gaming is social, so we make it even more so.”

The Multi-Player Online Gaming Di-rectory, or www.mpogd.com, a site dedicated to providing information on the industry, posted comments about Vircion’s success in enhancing gaming among friends.

“The real twist that Vircion provides is the ability to continue gaming sessions with your friends at home that don’t have the same console,” one poster wrote. “Be-cause the software is PC-based, there is no need to be tied to the same games or consoles any longer. This simple fact alone will dramatically increase the user base for the product, and could very well be cheaper than needing to buy additional games or consoles just to play with friends.”

Such accolades reinforce Walker’s living room inspiration.

“The best ideas are products that bring to reality ideas that are disruptive, forcing a shift in industry thinking, and bring val-ues to users that they anticipate would be a long way off,” Walker says. “The good news is that Sero is here now.”

VIRCION PLAYS THE FIELD

GAMING AWARD

NICK SIMONITE | ABJ

VIRCION INC.www.vircion.com

INNOVATION: Device that allows interactive remote game play of any console game over the Internet.

TERRI SCHEXNAYDER | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Founder Paul Walker and his team at Vircion are aiming to bring gaming to the masses by making it easy to play online.