Havok signs ‘perpetual’ licensing deal with Microsoft Game Studios

Microsoft Game Studios and Havok have signed a perpetual licensing agreement for the latter’s Physics, Animation and Behavior products, plus future products, to be used across all Microsoft internal studios and development partners worldwide.

Described as a ‘unique deal’, the agreement follows on from a long-running relationship between Microsoft and Havok. 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.

And a number of its upcoming titles currently in development are using Havok products. These include Fable 2, Halo Wars, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, and a number of additional games.

“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.”

Havok MD David O’Meara added: “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.

“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.”