50 replies to this topic

[IMG News]

Havok is finally on its way to the Mac. Thanks to a license agreement with Blizzard Entertainment, Havok 4.0 is now available for the Macintosh platform in both PPC and Intel Mac formats. Blizzard Entertainment will be using the popular Havok physics engine in company's upcoming products.

For those of you unfamiliar with Havok, it is a physics engine that has been used in the past by games such as Half-Life 2 on the PC, Halo 2 on the XBOX, and many others. Up until now companies such as Aspyr and MacSoft have refused to license Havok because the licensing fees are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So games such as Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault and a host of others never made it to the Mac platform because of the high licensing fees Havok demanded.

Here's more on the press release:

“Havok 4.0 will add power and flexibility to our development process,” said Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re looking forward to utilizing this technology with our upcoming games.”

Released in July this year, Havok 4.0 is a modular suite of artist tools and run-time technology that enhances Havok’s industry-leading game-play physics and animation products (Havok Physics™ and Havok Animation™). It also introduced two new products - Havok Behavior™ and Havok FX™.

With Havok 4.0, game developers can select from a modular suite of technologies and tools spanning game-play physics, character animation, behaviors and special effects, optimized for the widest range of platforms, including Sony Computer Entertainment Inc (SCEI) much-anticipated “PLAYSTATION®3” computer entertainment system, Microsoft’s 64bit Windows operating system, and now Apple Mac.

Jeff Yates, Havok’s Vice President, Product Management comments, “The Mac is an important piece of technology and because of the cross-platform nature of Havok’s technology, the port to Mac was easy to do. Furthermore, Blizzard Entertainment’s commitment to OS X and to the Mac community is a good indication of the growth potential of the Mac as a games platform. Blizzard has always put out great games on the Mac, and we look forward to Havok becoming a part of that tradition.”

It is important to note that Havok, according to one industry source, is still very expensive to license. Blizzard has deep pockets and is able to afford the high licensing costs for Havok. IMG has contacted Havok and we'll have more on this story soon.

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[StopDropBurn]

I LOVE Blizzard!

[Magnum]

The impossible has happened ahhh! It must be the end of the world!

Oh and +100 Coolness points for Blizzard  

[StopDropBurn]

STARCRAFT 2!!! *sobs tears of joy*

[BenRoethig]

I wouldn't get too excited about this announcement.  I don't think there was ever a technical reason while Havok never made it to the Mac.  The main reason for no havok was there wasn't a discount fee for a Mac port.  The price Aspyr or Macsoft would have paid is the same as the original PC developer.  Blizzard might not have to pay a double fee since its a hybrid disc as well, but don't quote me on that.

[gbafan]

Yeah, not quite sure what the benefit to Mac gamers is.  Sure, Blizzard licensed Havok and will be using it in it's next Mac/PC game.  Great, that's one game.  I don't think this will have any effect on Aspyr or MacSoft as they'd need to pay for the license themselves just as Blizzard has.

And as everyone knows, Blizzard has very, very deep pockets thanks to a small little MMO.

[converted2truth]

Blizzard didn't pay for all game devs to use Havok.  They just forked out the cash and made the creators port their software.

Who knows though, perhaps this will make it easier.

[BenRoethig]

I wouldn't get too excited about this announcement.  I don't think there was ever a technical reason while Havok never made it to the Mac.  The main reason for no havok was there wasn't a discount fee for a Mac port.  The price Aspyr or Macsoft would have paid is the same as the original PC developer.  Blizzard might not have to pay a double fee since its a hybrid disc as well, but don't quote me on that.

[the Battle Cat]

I don't see how Blizzard can do this without passing the burden on to game buyers in the form of higher costs either initially when purchased or later on via rate hikes.

[gromit]

the Battle Cat, on September 14th 2006, 03:45 PM, said:

I don't see how Blizzard can do this without passing the burden on to game buyers in the form of higher costs either initially when purchased or later on via rate hikes.

Just speculating here, but Blizzard is something of an 800 pound gorilla in the games industry, particularly since WOW has gone stratospheric.  I imagine they got terms that an Aspyr or a MacSoft could never get.

[bookman]

gromit, on September 14th 2006, 02:53 PM, said:

Just speculating here, but Blizzard is something of an 800 pound gorilla in the games industry, particularly since WOW has gone stratospheric.  I imagine they got terms that an Aspyr or a MacSoft could never get.

I don't know if they got terms, or if the Havok fee was just chump change to them. I can imagine that Havok would give Blizzard a price for Mac and PC Havok that would be less than the 2 seperate versions bought individually though.

[Unshra]

the Battle Cat, on September 14th 2006, 03:45 PM, said:

I don't see how Blizzard can do this without passing the burden on to game buyers in the form of higher costs either initially when purchased or later on via rate hikes.

Doubt it, Blizzard has the money to burn on this and with the profit they are getting off of WoW I am sure it did not even scratch their budget.

I hope to see Havok make it's way to WoW in later expansions it would be a nice feature for a RTS style of battle grounds (something thay talked about in the past but have yet to add.) I am quite sure the will milk Havok 4.0 and we will see it in future titles of Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo. Hell I would like to see a Starcraft MMO with Havok. ^_^

Anyways I am glad to see Blizzard once again shows the gaming community that it supports the Mac platform 100% for it's current titles and the titles to come.

-Unshra

[NAG]

The more interesting side of this news is that apparently they are working on a new mac/pc game and not just making WoW expansion packs.

[Xavier]

Dang! This is awsome!

Now I just wonder what Blizzard is going to come out with now that Havok is on Mac

[ajmas]

It would be nice to see what representives from MacSoft and Asypr have to say on this.

[Belcarius]

Never thought I'd see this day. And BLIZZARD are responsible? How awesome!

Of course it came too late to stop me buying a PC but it's good news for those of you still commited to gaming on Mac.

[MacProject]

Whether it's a good or bad thing in regards to seeing more Mac games, I'm just glad this whole Havok issue can finally be put to rest in some way.

[Ichigo27]

Why am I not suprised Blizzard bought the havok license.

[Kanamit]

I like the BS that the vice-president of havok says about the mac being an important piece of technology and acting like they've always been supportive of it.