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[Ape]

Sad news for me.

What does this change for you

 

[The Shadow]

I actually didn't think this news would send some people into a frenzy. Business will continue as normal for their favourite platforms.

The theme song for this thread should be a parody of "fancy" by Drake but the lyrics switched to "Oh you salty huh? Oh you salty huh?"

Yup. If people want to look back and see a similar situation, this is like when EA bought Criterion Software and with it, RenderWare, which was incredibly popular at the time. Everyone thought that EA would raise prices, rule games, destroy enemies, destroy Rockstar/GTA, etc.

Like, nothing happened. Nothing. Currently, RenderWare is dead, people moved on to other middleware. *shrug*

 

[Shining Sunshine]

When MS can't win, they buy.

 

[Kamina777]

Across the gamong spectrum this is money in the pocket for Microsoft but all this does is make other physic engine solutions that much more attractive to Sony first parties.

The ease of use of Havok and it's neutral status was what made it the giant it is

 

[Septic360]

Across the gamong spectrum this is money in the pocket for Microsoft but all this does is make other physic engine solutions that much more attractive to Sony first parties.

The ease of use of Havok and it's neutral status was what made it the giant it is

I agree with this kamina

 

[Doffen]

Similar to how their mobile division started announcing impressive profits despite low Windows Phone sales, thanks to patent trolling?

Not really patent trolling. You might disagree with the patent system, but there is still a difference between patent trolling and patent infringement.

When MS can't win, they buy.

Win what? The physics engine war?

 

[flkraven]

When MS can't win, they buy.

What does this even mean in this context?

 

[Durante]

Interesting and unexpected. I guess it didn't really fit in with Intel's plans as a company.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Win what? The physics engine war?

Havok may have won the battle, but they will never win the war.

PHYSX SHALL RISE AGAIN!

 

[Kieli]

I wonder if you have to be a super genius to work at Havok.

Sounds like a pretty cool gig.

I ain't about dat FB, Google, Amazon thing all the new CS grads have going on.

 

[The Flash]

 

[Dragonslayer_023]

Havok can't make that much money off their licensing, or Intel wouldn't have sold them..

 

[The Shadow]

The physics engine war?

The Ragdoll Wars will be a bloody misery upon all our souls.

 

[CosmicQueso]

When MS can't win, they buy.

What were they trying to win? The battle for middleware? What??

 

[speedomodel]

Sad news for me.

Did they buy it from you? Were you planning on buying it?

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

Havok may have won the battle, but they will never win the war.

PHYSX SHALL RISE AGAIN!

Cry "Havok!", and let slip the fanboys of console wars

 

[viHuGi]

AMD should be next.

 

[EvB]

Havok can't make that much money off their licensing, or Intel wouldn't have sold them..

It's one way to put a stop to a bunch of remasters or rereleases

 

[Sciz]

Across the gamong spectrum this is money in the pocket for Microsoft but all this does is make other physic engine solutions that much more attractive to Sony first parties.

The ease of use of Havok and it's neutral status was what made it the giant it is

Any day now, Sony first parties is going to wake up in utter horror. "What have I been doing all this time?" he'll ask. "How could I have been seduced by Visual Studio? By Windows? By... by Office!"

then he'll throw his computer out a window and burn a candle to Cerny

 

[PanicFreak]

When MS can't win, they buy.

MICROSOFT BUYING SONY CONFIRMED????

 

[Head.spawn]

Where is the "shot themselves in the foot!" post?

 

[fastford58]

Hopefully this pushes the industry to come up with a better physics middleware. Havok is pretty dated compared to some of the stuff out there.

Euphoria and BeamNG come to mind.

 

[shoreu]

When MS can't win, they buy.

if they have the money to buy everything. Aren't they winning?


(mind freak)

Spoiler

 

[RipperGrim]

So how much money is this deal looking to be? Havok is used for so many games it must be quite a lot for Intel to give it up.

 

[virtualS]

If Havok remains open and attractive (I have my doubts) then this should mean good things for AMD GPU physics.

I honestly hope this spurs AMD into action and that they bolster their own proprietary physics solutions into a competitive suite of offerings. I'd bet Sony are now actively searching for alternatives. Physx most certainly is not suitable.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

Win what? The physics engine war?

In this case, they buy the tech that Sony devs use a lot and make money off them.

Just like they buy Nokia and use that leverage to one up Google with all the patent acquisitions.

 

[jesu]

Where is the "shot themselves in the foot!" post?

MS just shot themselves in the foot, and the foot flopped around unrealistically.

 

[FordGTGuy]

In this case, they buy the tech that Sony devs use a lot and make money off them.

Just like they buy Nokia and use that leverage to one up Google with all the patent acquisitions.

They were doing that way before they bought Nokia, they made more money yearly on Android than Google did for a while.

When you throw $10,000,000,000 in R&D a year, you end up with a lot of patents in many areas.

 

[Doffen]

In this case, they buy the tech that Sony devs use a lot and make money off them.

And I'm sure there are already Sony devs out there using Visual Studios or other products that somehow gives Microsoft revenue.

Just like they buy Nokia and use that leverage to one up Google with all the patent acquisitions.

They didn't buy Nokia, they bought their "Devices & Services business" and they licensed Nokia's patents.

Nokia will retain its patent portfolio and will grant Microsoft a 10-year license to its patents at the time of the closing. Microsoft will grant Nokia reciprocal rights to use Microsoft patents in its HERE services. In addition, Nokia will grant Microsoft an option to extend this mutual patent agreement in perpetuity.

 

[blastprocessor]

AMD should be next.

Microhard.

 

[jaypah]

In this case, they buy the tech that Sony devs use a lot and make money off them.

Right. So win what? Money? What was at stake? Money? So they couldn't win money so they bought money? Y'all are making this into some sinister crazy fanboy mad scientist shit and it is amazing.

All jokes aside I honestly don't understand your previous post. "What MS can't win, they buy". I'm lost as to the context of this announcement.

 

[Carn82]

Like, nothing happened. Nothing. Currently, RenderWare is dead, people moved on to other middleware. *shrug*

This. We have little insight in why Microsoft acquired Havok. For all we know they are more interested in some other developments.

 

[jaypah]

This. We have little insight in why Microsoft acquired Havok. For all we know they are more interested in some other developments.

I believe they said it would be used for cloud services as well as standard Havok business.

 

[CosmicQueso]

So win what? Money? What was at stake? Money? So they couldn't win money so they bought money?

I love this post.

 

[Kayant]

I don't get this deal? How does this benefit Microsoft other then they avoid/collect any royalties that need to be paid.

There must be something bigger at play here

Can they somehow incorporate this into direct x 12 and make it part of that?

Services + Azure/I guess DX integration? And just making it more streamlined with their tools but really as others said it's hitting more with the mission statement about being "mobile first, cloud first".

 

[Inuhanyou]

Unless... this changes nothing, and MS continues to license out Havok exactly as Intel did before them, and the big reason they bought it was to associate their cloud-based physics compute with a respected brand...

But no, it couldn't be that simple.

Given literally nothing is changing from this expect more/easier integration into their tools I can't see anything wrong here. This is no real negatives(so far) with this deal.

Makes you really think hard on if this will have a negative impact on the industry, or hopefully, no impact at all.

Yeah, that small, scrappy, independent start up company Intel owned Havok since 2007. Now that a behemoth like M$ owns them, it's truly a dark day for the industry.

Just for clarification, i don't like the concept of this kind of practice in general. When applied overall, i don't think it sets a fine precedent.

I'm not a 'free market' type of dude though in general outside of gaming

 

[Tempy]

Now a days someone can just create their own physics engine right? They've sold that idea with lots of games.

"Never before seen physics engine"
"Physics engine will blow your mind"
"We're using an advanced physics engine with this"

It's probably a smart move, but chances are someone has an alternative or something as a backup. I wouldn't be surprised because there's a large field of AI programmers out there and people working freelance.

.... heh

AI programmers don't make Physics engines.

 

[CosmicQueso]

Just for clarification, i don't like the concept of this kind of practice in general. When applied overall, i don't think it sets a fine precedent.

I'm not a 'free market' type of dude though in general outside of gaming

What do you mean "this kind of practice"? One mega corp sold a company in its portfolio to another mega corp.

And what do you mean you're not a "free market" type? Who should own Havok then? The government? The people? The US should go communist to ensure Microsoft doesn't see a dime from Bloodbourne 2?

 

[Cipherr]

In this case, they buy the tech that Sony devs use a lot and make money off them.

Damn some of you all really don't recognize that there is a world outside of console gaming huh?

 

[rpg_fan]

Seems pretty logical to me. They buy Havoc to offer it as the existing license as well as adding a cloud based license. Dovetails with their cloud strategy nicely.

Not really anything to worry about, there's lots of cross licensing going on.

 

[Naminator]

Just for clarification, i don't like the concept of this kind of practice in general. When applied overall, i don't think it sets a fine precedent.

I'm not a 'free market' type of dude though in general outside of gaming

What exactly happened here that you object to?

And what does it set a bad precedent for?

 

[oldergamer]

If only ms could save natural motion from zynga...

 

[SapientWolf]

Unless... this changes nothing, and MS continues to license out Havok exactly as Intel did before them, and the big reason they bought it was to associate their cloud-based physics compute with a respected brand...

But no, it couldn't be that simple.

MS has enough software talent to significantly expand on Havok, and they're not obligated to license all of their proprietary code. So you might have a PhysX type of situation, where the GPU physics are proprietary and the CPU physics portion is free for licensed use.

 

[justsomeguy]

Any day now, Sony first parties is going to wake up in utter horror. "What have I been doing all this time?" he'll ask. "How could I have been seduced by Visual Studio? By Windows? By... by Office!"

then he'll throw his computer out a window and burn a candle to Cerny

LOTUS NOTES FOR EVERYONE!

 

[justsomeguy]

I too worry about the PS4's physics going forward, now that it is owned by Microsoft. It was so much better when it was owned by Intel, who had absolutely no competitor product inside the ps4 or Xbox.

Spoiler

Oh wait.

 

[Dezeer]

F Yes, does that mean we will finally get a universally supported GPU accelerated physics engine/library?

 

[Hawk269]

Isn't this leading MS back to the same route that got them in trouble w/ the gov't back in the late '90s? Seems like a slippery slope to me.

What? Are you being serious?

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

MS playing it smart. It's like they've conceded the console race and are finding ways to actually profit from losing.

Buy Minecraft and keep it Multiplatform
Now buy Havok and make money off literally every game being made right now given almost everything uses Havok.

Smart moves.

I'm aware Havok is also used outside gaming.

 

[inpHilltr8r]

1: VS is used as a host for PS4 tools. The compiler, debugger, and profiler are all developed at Sony. Well, the compiler is a version of clang, which is an external thing. Anyway, no MS code makes it into the runtime. You could theoretically write a PS4 game entirely with vi and a command line. Although you'd still need Windows as Sony stopped making linux tools a while back.

2: EA bought Renderware, and said...

http://www.itworld.com/article/2812...ys-maker-of-renderware-game-design-tools.html

...it plans to continue to license RenderWare to other developers.

No-one believed them, and everyone who wasn't already deep into production, dropped it.

3: MS obviously; isn't EA, has crazy money, and new people at the top, so who the fuck knows what their plans are.

 

[GlamFM]

In this case, they buy the tech that Sony devs use a lot and make money off them.

Just like they buy Nokia and use that leverage to one up Google with all the patent acquisitions.

Well instead of licensing it from Intel they will now license it from Microsoft. It was never free you know?
So what's the deal?