Aureal

Aureal Semiconductor, with roots in Media Vision, built A3D: an API and the Vortex chip family that computed how sound bounces and reaches each ear with a different delay (HRTF). In the late 1990s it gave games a noticeably better sense of space than its rival's EAX.

Technically Aureal won; legally it lost. A drawn-out patent fight with Creative Technology drained the bank account even though Aureal was cleared, and the company went bankrupt in 2000. Creative bought the assets at the liquidation sale — and shelved A3D. A textbook case of being right and going under anyway.