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Microsoft is going after the gamers, buys Havok

San Francisco – Xbox chief Phil Spencer said at the Game Developers Conference that the new Microsoft’s Windows 10 has been designed to have an operative system that focuses on a key demographic for the company: video game fans.

This comes in handy after an announcement posted by Microsoft in a blog on Friday. The company has acquired Havok – an Irish physics firm and a valuable video game industry mainstay – with plans to integrate the physics engine tech into the existing Windows and Xbox game developer toolsets.

Those toolsets include the Direct X12 suite of game programming APIs, the VisualStudio app development kit, and Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, which most recently was shown powering a real-time destructive environment in the upcoming crime game Crackdown 3.

According to Phil Spencer, this new version comes with features like a new Xbox app, the ability to record and share game play through Xbox Live, and many others. Credit: mommysbusy.com

Havok is best known for improving the realistic motion of bodies, bullets, and vehicles in franchises like Halo and Call of Duty. They have also supported the technology of more than 700 hundred games, such as The Elder Scrolls V, Skyrim, Uncharted 3, Drake’s Deception and Assassin’s Creed Unity. The company is also known for powering movie special effects for films like The Matrix and Troy.

Havok has also worked with a wide variety of technology and gaming companies including Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. Although Microsoft has acquired the gaming company, it will continue to license Havok’s software to other companies as part of the deal.

There are several details that have not been revealed yet. For instance, the disclosure details remain unknown. On the other side, Microsoft will be leveraging Havok to build out the Azure cloud platform, though it has not been clarified how exactly it would work.

Among other features in the New Microsoft’s Windows 10, the company offers a more organized and personal Start Menu; a personal assistant, called Cortana, which helps users set up meetings or send emails; a new browser that lets users take notes, write and highlight directly on webpages called Microsoft Edge; and a new feature that detects the face or fingertip of users instead of using passwords.

Source: Microsoft

Categories: Technology
Gabriela Cardona:
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