The battle to reign supreme as the Gods of Gaming World has just escalated to a whole new level with Microsoft purchasing Havok Software from Intel, earlier today. Havok has been a tech provider for over 600 gaming titles, a decade and a half since it’s started.
Titles like the Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty, Uncharted, Dead Rising and Skylanders and movies such as X-Men First Class, World War Z, Harry Potter and James Bond series, and The Matrix, owe their special effects magic to Havok. An Irish company by origin, Havok was bought by Intel in the mid 2007.
Microsoft, tagging Havok as the “leading provider of 3D physics” stated in its blog that it plans to implement Havok’s technology in gaming and augmented reality, in order to have its Xbox console as the market leader. Also a prospective target is it’s Hololens project, which will benefit from the latest acquisition. The company also announced that it is building the most comprehensive cloud service, which was exhibited earlier through its games like Crackdown 3.
“As we welcome Havok to the Microsoft family, we will continue to work with developers to create great gaming experiences, and continue to license Havok’s development tools to partners. We believe that Havok is a fantastic addition to Microsoft’s existing tools and platform components for developers, including DirectX 12, Visual Studio and Microsoft Azure.”
Microsoft has displayed a ongoing trend of acquiring and working with major players from other platforms. With Havok on their competitors side, Sony might be silently rolling out a counter for its PlayStation.
“Microsoft’s acquisition of Havok continues our tradition of empowering developers by providing them with the tools to unleash their creativity to the world. We will continue to innovate for the benefit of development partners.”
