Gravis Ultrasound - Demise

Demise

Despite the groundbreaking features, the Gravis's unique sample-RAM architecture proved too much for the industry. Some game developers of the time noted problems with the software development kit and the product's hardware design. On the user-side, the Sound Blaster emulation was especially hard to get right out of the box, and this resulted in a substantially high number of product returns at the store level and thus soured the retail channel on the product. Bundled software was refined over time, but Gravis could not distribute updates effectively.

The company itself also created its own trouble. When Gravis's list of promised supporting game titles failed to materialize, the company lost credibility with consumers and commercial developers. Several publishers and developers threatened to sue the company over misrepresentation of their products — pointing to outright fabrication of Gravis's list.

The shareware games industry embraced the Gravis more than the retail games industry. Famous companies which did this in an early stage were publisher Apogee and developers id software and Epic Megagames. Gravis can also claim victory in the demo scene, which had taken the GUS to its heart, ensuring a dedicated, cult following for a number of years. But without the marketing and developer presence of Creative Labs, Gravis could not generate either the sales or support required for the Gravis soundcard to compete in the mainstream market against the de facto standard Soundblaster.

Although the InterWave chip was a substantially improved version of the GF1 chip, this new design was not able to hold up with the Sound Blaster AWE32. More than that, AMD was facing financial troubles at the time so it was forced to close many projects, including the InterWave.

Due to dwindling sales, Gravis was eventually forced out of the soundcard business, and the UltraSound's failure nearly took the entire company down with it. Advanced Gravis, once one of the dominant players in the PC peripherals marketplace, had bet much of the future of the company on the UltraSound and paid the price for its demise. Shareholders sued the company charging gross incompetence by its management, in regards to the entire UltraSound effort. After significant restructuring, including acquisition by competitor Kensington Technology Group (via its parent, ACCO World Corp), the company retreated to its core-market, the one which had made it a success — joysticks and gamepads.