Santa Clara (CA) – Intel gets more involved with game developers as the company announced that it will acquire Havok, best known as developer of a software-based physics solution for video games.

Intel said that it will purchase Havok to make it a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. Financial data of the deal were kept confidential.

According to Intel, Havok will continue to operate its "business as usual, which will allow them to continue developing products that are offered across all platforms in the industry."

Havok, founded in 1998 in Dublin, Ireland, offers three products to support game developers with interactive features for their products. The "Behavior" tool promises to enable "event-driven character behaviors in a game" and "Animation" is described to provide "optimized playback and real-time blending on current and next-generation game systems." However, it was the firm's "Physics" 2 SDK, which allows developers to integrate physics features such as collision detection in their games.

Havok claims that "more than 70 clients" have licensed its technology. So far it has been integrated in apparently "more than 150" titles, including "BioShock," "Stranglehold," "Halo 2," "Half Life 2," "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion," "Crackdown," "Lost Planet: Extreme Condition," "MotorStorm" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." Upcoming games integrating the technology include Halo 3 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

In addition, Havok says that its products have been used to create special effects in movies such as "Poseidon," "The Matrix," "Troy," "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

.. aha...

Sep 16, 2007 03:35     

... so it means that in the future the Havok physics will be optimized for intel CPU's... that means, that the games with Havok engine in it will perform better on intel than AMD, do the optimization... sad...
Gynars report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

So much for AMD support

Sep 16, 2007 08:12     

Somehow I doubt Intel's claims that they will allow Havok to continue "business as usual".
Timberwolf_CLT report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Future of Physics Rendering

Sep 16, 2007 08:58     

One would assume with this that Havok would now be tuned to work better with Intel products and less well with AMD and non-Intel products. If this happened this would lend to other physics technologies being looked at closer, and would perhaps give Ageia a boost. Silly enough Ageia came out way too early with most of it's technology and is still mostly a novelty. Perhaps resultant of this and the future they'll become more main stream.

Will report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Nvidia is next

Sep 16, 2007 09:31     

Intel has quickly dispatched AMD in a years time. Now, Intel will set their sights on the company who won't license SLI to X38 and X48. Intel doesn't need to spend 5.4 billion to produce graphics chips. Wait, they already have. Think Larabee.
SPARKS report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

curious

Sep 16, 2007 10:08     

I wonder what intel's angle is here. Perhaps they want to make some SIMD instructions for Havok based games? Some sort of tie in like that?
mpjesse report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

this is BAD news for Ageia...

Sep 16, 2007 11:00     

I think this about seals their fate wouldn't you say? With Intel and Havok doubtlessly working on optimizing physics for quad-core procs, this will be the last (of many) nails in the PhysX's coffin...
al report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

That means no more physics for AMD CPUs

Sep 16, 2007 14:49     

That means no more physics for AMD CPUs [Intel could build a plug-in socket version that works with AMD's upcoming Torrenza platform. hehehe -Rick]
WOW report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Integrated physics acceleration?

Sep 16, 2007 16:00     

Now that would be interesting, Intel placing an onboard phyics accelerator onboard.
R. Williams report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Intel And Havok

Sep 16, 2007 21:32     

Hmmmm... Integrated physics on an Intel Chip. Sweet
Michael report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Intel & Havok?

Sep 16, 2007 22:00     

Wow... Intel bought out Havok, ok... Er... Help me out here, I'm a little lost... It would've made more sense if a company such as Valve bought out Havok or something... I don't seem to be able to see the link here... Unless ofcourse, Intel is aiming at building chips which have integrated physics in them... :-) That would put Ageia on the line... Lol... [Bingo! Intel's Tera-Scale Project allows for cookie-cutter designs for cores. I think we'll see Tera-Scale be the final microprocessor design that puts x86 out to pasture. Too much flexibility, extensibility and massive parallel abilities. Fusion will likely work similarly, but it hasn't yet been demonstrated. -Rick]

Abhishek report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

i see it now

Sep 16, 2007 23:18     

To play havok based games you got to have an intel inside...
rob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

... still thats sad...

Sep 17, 2007 02:37     

... intel's philosophy on this: if can't cheat on sales or humiliate with price drops, just buy... in this case a 'tool' to destroy competition...
Gynarz report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

hmmm

Sep 17, 2007 03:42     

Hmmm... AMD has bought graphics for intregation.Intel can't make a deal with Nvidia and doesn't want to copy.Why not intergrate physics on die!Sucks for amd and agia but good move on intels part."On die physics" wow that would be a concept huh.
GH0ST report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Ageia...

Sep 17, 2007 04:04     

anyone fancy ageia being bought by AMD?
DG report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I hope this stops

Sep 17, 2007 08:58     

In the end this is going to suck. Intel is going to run all the innovation out of the market with the market power they have. If AMD goes under then Intel can release new products at a snails pace.
wes report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Advancing Multicore Gaming

Sep 18, 2007 15:53     

All the doom and gloom towards AMD and PhyXics.. Maybe Intel isn't trying to lock AMD out of the gamer's systems or intigrate physics on their chips Maybe they are hoping to leverage Havoc and Intel's program languages into better support of multiple cores (ANYONE's multiple cores) in the video game market. I keep hearing how it is costing more and more to develope games because of multicore support...Intel is bound to help lessen the pains with this move

Kary report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

DirectX 11 Physics API ?

Sep 19, 2007 09:41     

Is the main reason to buy the company the software or the hardware IP ? What will happen when Microsoft want to include a Physics API into furture DirectX. More Intel only optimisation and control :(
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