Microsoft Licenses Havok Development Suite

Havok announced that it has signed a perpetual licensing agreement with Microsoft Game Studios in which Havok's core Physics, Animation and Behavior products, plus future products, will be made available to all Microsoft internal studios and development partners worldwide.

In this unique deal, Microsoft game creators that choose to license Havok Physics will automatically receive Havok Animation. Havok's industry-pervasive physics engines and software tools enable video game and PC developers to speed development time, keep costs in check, improve internal efficiencies and reduce overall development risk.

"Microsoft Game Studios is proud to have committed to a long term partnership with Havok. As a leading Publisher, our mission is to deliver the highest quality Xbox 360 & Windows gaming experience to our customers," says Jason Mangold, Business Manager at MGS. "There's no question that using Havok's technology helps MGS deliver on that goal."

Some of the highly anticipated Microsoft titles currently in development that are using Havok products include Fable 2, Halo Wars, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, plus a number of additional games. Havok has been used in several Microsoft triple A titles including Halo 3, Halo 2, Scene It? Lights Camera Action, and Age of Empires III. Microsoft has been licensing Havok products since 2001.

"Havok is committed to providing not only the premier physics software to our customers, but also in giving them new tools, such as Havok Behavior, that can substantially reduce the time it takes teams to develop character behaviors, allowing game programmers to focus on developing the best game they can," says Managing Director David O'Meara. "Microsoft has been a valuable customer of ours for 7 years and we are excited about the development teams having access to the entire suite of current Havok products, plus our upcoming products Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction."