Wii U Developers Licensed To Use Havok Physics, Animations
Posted on March 06 2012 by Benjamin Lamoreux
Havok, creators of one of the most popular physics engines in the industry, has entered into a global licensing agreement to allow all developers working on Wii U projects to use their physics engine and animation technologies. With well-known games and franchises like Assassin’s Creed, BioShock, Half-Life, Uncharted, The Elder Scrolls, and L.A. Noire using Havok technologies, this could be a big step for Nintendo in reestablishing themselves in the third party market.
Havok Managing Director David Coughlan expressed excitement at the thought of being at the forefront of the new platform, and called himself “honored” to be able to bring Havok technologies to the Wii U console.
“We are very excited to be at the forefront of the new platform. We are honored to be providing Havok technology to Wii U developers in order to create great games in all genres. Gamers around the world expect high-fidelity realism and want to immerse themselves into new gaming experiences. This license agreement will give game developers everywhere easy access to Havok’s industry-leading technology. We are sure this license agreement will result in the creation of great interactive experiences for consumers on the Wii U platform!”
The most obvious implication of this partnership is that some of the popular titles mentioned above could see Wii U ports. We’ve heard lots of talk about Valve and Ubisoft both being interested in developing for the Wii U, and we know Assassin’s Creed III is seeing a Wii U port, but that might only be the tip of the iceberg. This is a big plus for Nintendo fans who don’t own other consoles, as they haven’t gotten the chance to play some of these great games.
More importantly for Nintendo than popular ports will be original content created with this technology. Whether its first party titles or exclusive third party games, for Nintendo to fully take advantage of this situation they need to use Havok technology to create must-have titles that the competition doesn’t have. There’s been plenty of talk about Nintendo’s need to establish themselves in the First Person Shooter genre, as it has quickly become one of the most popular styles in the industry, and a new, exclusive Nintendo FPS using the Havok engine would be a welcome sight.
What do you expect to see come from this? What titles would you like to see ported to the Wii U, and what original content do you hope to see come from this? Sound off in the comments!
