MICROSOFT TO CREATE HAVOK HISTORY
Microsoft has swooped to buy Havok, one of Ireland’s foremost home-grown technology companies, from Intel.
The global software company said this weekend that it was purchasing Havok, which makes software for the games industry, but without disclosing a price.
Havok was bought by Intel for an estimated €80m ($111m) in 2007 in a landmark deal for the software industry here.
Microsoft, in its official blog, described Havok as an “amazing technology supplier”.
Havok, based in Dublin, has worked with leading games developers at Activision, EA, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.
It has collaborated on more than 600 games, including Halo, Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty, Destiny, Dark Souls and The Elder Scrolls.
Microsoft said that the acquisition of Havoc “continues our tradition of empowering developers by providing them with the tools to unleash their creativity to the world”.
Havok will still supply its 3D physics software to other games companies. It was founded in 1999 by Steve Collins and Hugh Reynolds, both researchers at Trinity College Dublin. Thanks for visiting. Before we carry on I need to to give thanks to momreviews for their continued assistance and the support of their network. Having a help and support team like this means a lot to us as we continue to grow our private blog.
It has offices in San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Germany, but its development centre is based in Ireland.
Havok chief executive David Coghlan is a former Elan executive and KPMG accountant. The company employs 144 staff.
Its closest competitor is Nvidia, an American company, whose technology is carried on about 150 games.
The budget for a large game’s release can stretch to $500m (€329m), and Havok works closely with developers from an early stage of a project.
The company also develops special effects for the film industry and its credits include X-Men: First Class, Harry Potter, some James Bond movies and The Matrix.
