Intel To Acquire Havok

[malware]

Intel Corporation today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Havok Inc., the leading provider of interactive software and services used by digital media creators in the game and movie industries. Havok will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel. The acquisition will enable developers in the digital animation and game communities to take advantage of Intel's innovation and technology leadership in the creation of digital media.


"Havok is a proven leader in physics technology for gaming and digital content, and will become a key element of Intel's visual computing and graphics efforts," said Renee J. James, vice president and general manager of Intel's Software and Solutions Group. "Havok will operate its business as usual, which will allow them to continue developing products that are offered across all platforms in the industry."

Havok's modular suite of software development tools is used by game and digital animation creators to build realistic video games for all types of hardware and digitally animated movies. The company's combination of superior technology and dedication to customers has led to its technology being used in more than 150 of the world's best-known game 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." In addition, Havok 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."

"This is a great fit for Havok products, customers and employees," said Havok CEO David O'Meara. "Intel's scale of technology investment and customer reach enable Havok with opportunities to grow more quickly into new market segments with new products than we could have done organically. We believe the winning combination is Havok's technology and customer know-how with Intel's scale. I am excited to be part of this next phase of Havok's growth."

Havok was founded in 1998 in Dublin, Ireland, and has offices in San Francisco, San Antonio, Stockholm, Calcutta, Munich and Tokyo. The company will be a wholly owned Intel subsidiary and continue to operate as an independent business working with its customers in developing digital media content. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Source: Intel

[Wile E]

Oh crap. What does this mean for AMD/ATI users I wonder?

[Glump Bliermp]

This is gay.

[SpoonMuffin]

acctualy unless intel puts out a ppu/gpu of its own thats user retail level they would be VERY stupid to not support amd/ati and nvidia cards(intel dosnt like nvidia because nvidia wont just let intel support sli official for free )

meh, intel will screw this up i would bet, bye bye havok, hope your employs start a new company like the gradge games guys did when dynamix was shutdown by sierra...blah more depressing bs

[OnBoard]

One company to rule them all :/ So now everytime a movie is made with the help of Havok there is a Core™2 Quad add?

[Nkd]

i dont understand why this will be a stupid move, i think its a brilliant move by intel, they need professionals inputs in their upcoming discrete graphics part, i think its better for employee of havok and intel, remember intel is not a broke amd right now so those people dont have to worry about losing their job, i am pretty sure they are more than happy to be owned by intel.

[wazzledoozle]

Originally Posted by Nkd

i dont understand why this will be a stupid move, i think its a brilliant move by intel, they need professionals inputs in their upcoming discrete graphics part, i think its better for employee of havok and intel, remember intel is not a broke amd right now so those people dont have to worry about losing their job, i am pretty sure they are more than happy to be owned by intel.

You dont understand precisely because you dont understand.

I doubt a physics-engine company is going to help in making graphics hardware.

[tigger]

i think this could be a good thing not bad.intel wont stop licenceing this to other companies for games and such,and havok co. will have more resources to work with which can only improve the havok system.

[DanTheBanjoman]

Originally Posted by Glump Bliermp

This is gay.

Quality response there, please don't do it again.

[jocksteeluk]

well one positive is anti intel game developers may switch away and use a development tool less resource intensive that the havok tools, another invite for openGL to make a massive comeback.

[DanTheBanjoman]

Originally Posted by jocksteeluk

well one positive is anti intel game developers may switch away and use a development tool less resource intensive that the havok tools, another invite for openGL to make a massive comeback.

There are game developers that are actually anti Intel or AMD?

[tkpenalty]

Originally Posted by DanTheBanjoman

There are game developers that are actually anti Intel or AMD?

Dans right guys, game developers actually dont have the time to be immature and side with a company. Its pretty pessimistic and immature thinking that intel will try to run a monopoly, they just want to maximize their profits, and guys if you bitch about this...think about it, is there any point of bitching that intel gained more market share?

Moreover think about it, if they optimized the game to run faster on a specific platform, wouldn't the game developers have a smaller income? Think about that as well.

[WarEagleAU]

Just a one up on AMD. Intel cant buy a graphics company, so they buy Havok, which is a game engine maker if Im not mistaken.

[DanTheBanjoman]

Originally Posted by WarEagleAU

Just a one up on AMD. Intel cant buy a graphics company, so they buy Havok, which is a game engine maker if Im not mistaken.

They got most of the 3Dlabs team, have several licenses from Imagination and have their own team. They don't really need to buy a whole graphics company.

[effmaster]

Originally Posted by DanTheBanjoman

They got most of the 3Dlabs team, have several licenses from Imagination and have their own team. They don't really need to buy a whole graphics company.

So true

But with this acquisition of Havok one does wonder if Havok will release an equivalent of the Ageia Physx Card this would just make me lol if people suddenly decided to buy that after Physx has already been out close to what about 2 years?

But seriously Halo 2 used Havok?

And Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix being one of the 150 well known titles that used Havok i call bullshit on that lol.

I hardly even heard any talk about the game let alone anything positive about it

[mas0n]

This is all about physics acceleration in Intel Octal-core CPUs designed to compete with AMD Fusion project.

[Glump Bliermp]

Originally Posted by DanTheBanjoman

Quality response there, please don't do it again.

I'm not even going to point out the irony here.

Originally Posted by Nkd

i dont understand why this will be a stupid move, i think its a brilliant move by intel.

Duh. This is a brilliant move by intel because now intel can bring some proprietary addition to their processors specifically for the Havok Engine. They'll patent that addition. Then in ALL benchmarks, games will run better on Intel chips. Then AMD will go out of business. There will be nobody to compete with Intel, and we'll all be forced to pay whatever Intel tells us to pay. All the while, there would be no more incentive for Intel to innovate new products because there's no competition. This may be good for Intel, but this sucks for you and me.

[Ravenas]

Originally Posted by Glump Bliermp

I'm not even going to point out the irony here.


Duh. This is a brilliant move by intel because now intel can bring some proprietary addition to their processors specifically for the Havok Engine. They'll patent that addition. Then in ALL benchmarks, games will run better on Intel chips. Then AMD will go out of business. There will be nobody to compete with Intel, and we'll all be forced to pay whatever Intel tells us to pay. All the while, there would be no more incentive for Intel to innovate new products because there's no competition. This may be good for Intel, but this sucks for you and me.

Lol....AMD won't got out of buisness. AMD could easily aquire ageia physx and do the same thing. This will barely effect the market.

[TheGuruStud]

Goodbye havok, nice knowing you. Say hello to your new, evil overlords, for me.

And to AMD, prepare your lawyers for when the benchies go sour.

[Steevo]

So Intel adds some propretairy hardware to their chips, patents it, and only one company, out of many can use it. I doubt that game makers will fall for this, make half of their userbase obsolete? More than likely it is just to put the squeeze on AMD/ATI for licansing the code.




Good move by Intel, possibly bad for AMD/ATI. But inthe day and age of quad core processors they should be able to do a software emulation of the hardware, hell we have been using software for years with no problems.

[Sasqui]

I think Intel is finally trying to diversify into the software sector. The only software they've made (that I know of) are hardware tools and hardware acceleration optimizers.

Does anyone not agree or know differently?

There is also the possibility that some serious Havok game engines can/will be optimized for Intel/NVidia. This'll leaving those wanting some great game titles with little chioce but Intel platform for performance. "Hey look at this kids, the #1 game runs 30% faster on an intel rig!"

And then there's the media sector they could infiltrate (FX software used in blockbuster movies, currently dominated by a few players like Autodesk).

[a111087]

Originally Posted by Ravenas

Lol....AMD won't got out of buisness. AMD could easily aquire ageia physx and do the same thing. This will barely effect the market.

lol, who needs ageia physx?!

[Glump Bliermp]

Originally Posted by Ravenas

Lol....AMD won't got out of buisness. AMD could easily aquire ageia physx and do the same thing. This will barely effect the market.

Hardware company buying a hardware company is one thing; hardware company buying a software company that's used in many of the best games, is another. Besides, AGEIA PhysX is a joke. Anyway, I smell anti-trust all over this.

[Nkd]

Originally Posted by wazzledoozle

You dont understand precisely because you dont understand.

I doubt a physics-engine company is going to help in making graphics hardware.

well thanks for your generous response, by no means i was directing it toward only their hardware, intel has been looking for software engineers also, they need professionals, i am sure people at havok are not stupid, and they could help intel. and also i agree with the statement that they are probably trying to squeeze nvidia and amd both, specially nvidia because of the fact they are giving intel the hardest time on licensing sli.

[TheGuruStud]

Originally Posted by Nkd

well thanks for your generous response, by no means i was directing it toward only their hardware, intel has been looking for software engineers also, they need professionals, i am sure people at havok are not stupid, and they could help intel. and also i agree with the statement that they are probably trying to squeeze nvidia and amd both, specially nvidia because of the fact they are giving intel the hardest time on licensing sli.

agreed

I always wonder what would've happened if AMD and Nvidia could've worked things out. Nvidia obviously has the best parts (performance-wise if you're going to nit pick about something else :P). Together I think they would be unstoppable against intel.