Microsoft unleashes Havok
Physics everywhere
MICROSOFT HAS signed a licensing deal with the graphics physics folk Havok.
The deal makes the Havok's core Physics, Animation and Behaviour products available to Microsoft internal studios and all its development partners worldwide.
Microsoft game developers will receive Havok Animation, Havok's physics engines and software tools.
Some Microsoft titles currently in development that use Havok tools include Fable 2, Halo Wars and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.
Microsoft has been licensing Havok products since 2001 and the engine has already been used in several Microsoft titles including Halo 3, Halo 2, and Age of Empires III. µ

Comments
What is a development partner
If I buy a copy of Visual Studio will I have access to Havok?Green = Fail
Oh, Nvidia must love that.Make sense though, the GPU in 360 is ATI.
Things are looking up for ATI this time around, really looking up.
Great Faith & Begpardon?!
We can have havoc on any M$ compatible hardware. This frees Chip and Chimp Zilla from the Nvidiot undertakers of Ageiasm. Me wonders if the uber-Intelista's will provide open sauce punters with their daily dose of Woostershire Sauce on fish fingers? I Want To Believe in universal havoc. I have this pipe dream about being emperor of the universe. If I were the king of the world, tell you what I'd do: I'd make vole havoc a certifiable madhatta driver. Hold on mate. You're not going to drive from the passenger side? Are you? You're ticking off me Vauxhall virtual backseat driver. Now see here! There was no call to switch on Active Noise Control as weeellll...Havok +ATI= No Ageia for me!
Hmmm.....Now won't it be fun when Havoc support finds it's way into ATI Catalyst? Sorry NV. Hate it for you. Glad I bought an ATI card instead of NV this time around. :-)
omg
"If I buy a copy of Visual Studio will I have access to Havok?"I lol'd ...
Great?
Whilst I relish the thought of everyone stamping on Nvidia, the fact that Microsoft is involved is a double edged sword.Make no mistake, M$ are still evil but just in a more glossy brochure and pretty dress - do something they don't like and the adorable cash rich cuddly toy company becomes a 100ft tall fire breathing devil, smashing up buildings like Megatron in the
Transformers movie.
There goes innovation
Microsoft officially supporting Havok is pretty much a kick in the balls to anyone who are innovating in hardware physics; Havok wins because Microsoft says so.Cross platform titles dominate PC gaming, Microsoft standardizes Havok on Xbox, Havok dominates PC gaming with no room to experiment with hardware acceleration 'because Microsoft says so'.
It gets on my nerves that new technologies are never even given a chance because that monopolistic lard bucket makes decisions about things they shouldn't even be tampering with.