Intel purchases Havok

[W1nTry]

Chipzilla snaps up Irish gamers

Cry Havok and let slip the chequebook of Intel

By Andrew Thomas: Saturday 15 September 2007, 10:18
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MAKER OF CHIPS, Intel, has handed over an undisclosed number of readies to acquire Dublin-based gaming graphics gaming outfit, Havok. The nine-year old company, which will become a fully-owned subsidiary of the chip behemoth, produces interactive software and services used by digital media creators in the game and movie industries.

"Havok is a 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 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 claims 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. Havok says its products have also been used to create special effects in movies such as Poseidon, The Matrix, Troy, Kingdom of Heaven and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. µ

Intel's purchase of Havok is a puzzler

Comment Physics with curiosity

By Charlie Demerjian: Saturday 15 September 2007, 10:16
INTEL JUST BOUGHT Havok, maker of physics middleware for games. This is a really interesting buy for a number of reasons, yet it makes little sense on the surface.

Intel dollars kight have been better spent elsewhere, bit one thing this does do though is ensure Havok is optimized for Larrabee, and that has indirect benefits. Intel got a world-class gaming development team. Those are the positives.

On the negative side, this hoses just about everyone in the hardware world other than Intel. Most directly affected are Nvidia and AMD. Nvidia has a partnership with Havok to do HavokFX, IE physics on the GPU. Anyone want to place bets to this surviving, assuming it isn't so botched already that it has been brushed under the table?

On the AMD side, it allows Intel to play compiler games with middleware. Intel actively de-optimises for AMD, more than the usual not optimising for, and if this is buried in middleware, it will be a huge negative for AMD in games.

The console market is somewhere that Intel does not play any more, but may have designs on later. This may be a toe in to the next round of consoles, or more importantly, it may be a lever to arm-twist the current guys for some reason that we can't fathom.

A company that will definitely benefit from all of this is Ageia. It makes physics middleware for its hardware, and gives the APIs and software away for other systems. It is the iPod model of sales. If Intel alienates people with the buy, it will simply take the development team in house and Ageia is a big winner.

But it remains a puzzling move. If it is a Larrabee developer grab, good enough. Beyond that we don't see it being worth the money. Intel has to know that any tricks will alienate people fast enough to destroy any value Havok has. Curious. µ