Havok swoops for Kore

After years organically growing a physics and middleware proposition, Havok has made its first acquisition to add new technology to its offer.

In fact, the firm has bought a new start-up originally founded by Havok’s creators.

Today the Intel-owned company confirmed it has acquired Kore Virtual Machine.

Kore was developed by Havok founders Hugh Reynolds and Steven Collins at their new firm New Game Technologies.

The virtual machine technology was specifically built for console games and has already found a home amongst the likes of Sega, Bungie, Lionhead, Masthead Studios, United Front Games, NetDevil and other unnamed teams.

But now it will sit in the Havok portfolio, renamed Havok Script. New Game Technologies, meanwhile is being taken in "a new R&D direction for some time,” said Reynolds, CEO.

“I guess we thrive on new product development, so we were delighted when the opportunity came up to place the Kore VM technology with Havok," he said, Silicon Republic reports.

“Without a doubt, Havok is the company that has the best track record in the games industry for supporting customers and delivering optimised cross-platform technology. It’s a real win-win result."

Havok has taken over all technical and commercial functions for Kore/Havok Script and will be providing all support, licensing and services for it, the report says. The tech will have its own dedicated engineering team and will be still available as a standalone product separate from other Havok tech.

The firm is best known for its Develop Award-winning tools for things like Physics, Destruction and Cloth.