Microsoft announced today its acquisitions of Havok, the company that makes the 3D physics tools for games like Halo, Assassins Creed, and Call of Duty.
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This seems notable for game makers because it brings the provider of popular game development middleware under the auspices of a first-party publisher and platform holder.
Over the course of its existence, Havok has worked with a wide variety of technology and gaming companies including Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. “It’ll be business as usual”.
“Havok is a fantastic technology supplier in the games industry and the leading real time physics creator”.
Havok will not be limited to Microsoft exclusively.
In a statement, Microsoft said Havok’s tools will complement the company’s existing ones, such as DirectX 12, Visual Studio, and Microsoft Azure.
Havok’s products include software that handles computer generated physics, which is what the company is best known for in gaming, as well as handling animations, destructible environments, cloth effects, and more. Havok falling under the Microsoft umbrella immediately raises concerns in regards to its future across other third-parties.
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Havok was used recently for Destiny, Mortal Kombat X, Dark Souls 2, and Watch Dogs. “… Microsoft’s acquisition of Havok continues our tradition of empowering developers by providing them with the tools to unleash their creativity to the world”. Microsoft explained that this is part of “building the most complete cloud service”. Hopefully this is just the start of that, and no dropoff in Havok use by developers and partners comes as a result.
