Havok Bought By Microsoft, Will Not Be Exclusive To Publisher
The realm of games is ever shifting, alliances and agreements come and go with the times, and new deals are always just around the corner. Microsoft has made such a deal, acquiring Havok from Intel. Havok is known for their game engine which boosts fantastic physics. In a blog post, Microsoft explained the acquisition:
“Microsoft’s acquisition of Havok continues our tradition of empowering developers by providing them with the tools to unleash their creativity to the world,” the company’s corporate article reads. “We will continue to innovate for the benefit of development partners. Part of this innovation will include building the most complete cloud service, which we’ve just started to show through games like ‘Crackdown 3.'”
Now this has raised many a question, mainly, “will others still be able to use the Havok engine?” The answer appears to be yes, as Microsoft stated to IGN:
“We will continue to license Havok’s technology to the broad AAA games industry,” a representative told IGN. “This also means that we will continue to license Havok’s technology to run across various game consoles including Sony and Nintendo.”
This is a very interesting development, and one that could impact certain games and titles going forward. How much? Well, we’ll have to wait and see won’t we?