Microsoft just announced that they would be acquiring Havok, the well-known game tool creator, from Intel. Havoc adds realistic in-game physics models to games. Satya Nadella said that gaming was a cornerstone for Microsoft and it shows. After Mojang, this is another critical acquisition. Microsoft will continue to license Havok’s tools to third-party partners.
In a statement the company said:
“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. Havok is an amazing technology supplier in the games industry and the leading real-time physics creator. We saw an opportunity to acquire Havok to deliver great experiences for our fans. 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.”
Microsoft is pushing its cloud game development platform ever since it showed off the mind-blowing destruction available in Crackdown 3. Havok will be expanded to include that technology. This is great news because it’s a tool that’s familiar to so many developers. You might’ve noticed the Havok symbol before almost every game that comes out nowadays. Havok will enable Microsoft to make cloud computing for physics mainstream. I think we can expect more cloud-powered multiplayer experiences in the future that feature destruction similar to Crackdown 3. I can’t wait to see what Microsoft does!
Our friends over at AR12Gaming compiled a list of major projects powered by Havok technology. The games are as follows:
• Dark Souls 3
• Fallout 4
• Halo 5: Guardians
• Horizon: Zero Dawn
• Just Cause 3
• Need for Speed
• No Man’s Sky
• Rainbow Six Siege
• Star Wars: Battlefront
• The Division
• The Last Guardian
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
Source: Windows Central and AR12Gaming
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.