Technology firm Icarus Studios, which specializes in assisting clients develop virtual worlds, MMOGs, simulators, and 3D educational products, has announced a partnership with online voice communications developer Vivox, integrating the Vivox Precision Studio within the Icarus Developer Tools Suite. The partnership will allow players to communicate both in groups or one-on-one in a fully integrated application within the game. The Vivox voice chat is facilitated through the pre-existing Vivox Network, leaving game servers and CPU resources untouched by the chat. Vivox's voice solution has already proven popular in other similar online development platforms, having been integrated within both Monumental and BigWorld's middleware software development solutions. Icarus recently released its next generation Icarus platform with a full suite of middleware tools. According to the studio, the platform provides all of the common and next-generation administration and customer support tools required to run an online network, and “will dramatically reduce the costs associated with scaling to make a successful online environment.” According to Icarus, the platform has already been licensed by two unnamed clients covered by NDAs, and is being used by MMOG Fallen Earth, which is currently in development. “We are pleased to expand our partnership with Vivox beyond Fallen Earth,” said Jim Hettinger, CEO of Icarus Studios. “Our objective is to blur the lines between the real world and online virtual worlds.” He added: “By incorporating Vivox’s best of breed technology and service with the Icarus Developer Tools Suite, we’re offering an immersive communications solution that will bring the two worlds closer together. By enabling other developers to quickly add Vivox’s superior VoIP features with minimal development effort, our customers will be able to deliver feature-rich voice services tailored specifically to their world that exceed expectations with the full support of Vivox’s team of communication experts.”