Microsoft acquires physics studio Havok from Intel

The business has partnered with various companies to create more than 600 games, such as Microsoft’s Halo, Ubisoft’s (UBSFY) Assassin’s Creed and Activision Blizzard’s (ATVI) Call of Duty and Destiny.

Havok helps developers create gaming experiences and sells licensed tools to partners.

Terms of Microsoft’s acquisition of Havok from Intel today were not disclosed.

Basically, developers turn to Havok when they need to simulate realistic physics in their games.

Havok, the company known for its fantastic physics in video games, has been acquired by Microsoft.

First founded in Dublin, Ireland circa 1998, Intel bought Havok in 2007 to accelerate its play in the gaming market.

The Havok team will join Microsoft’s growing suite of development tools including Visual Studio, DirectX 12 and Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft likely felt the need to reassure developers that it would continue to license Havok’s software since it is often used in games that are released for competing platforms, including Sony Corp’s PlayStation 4 console. “Part of this innovation will include building the most complete cloud service, which we’ve just started to show through games like ‘Crackdown 3, ‘” the company added. Microsoft will be making a bunch of money on licensing deals, that’s a given, but it’s highly unlikely that Havok itself will change in any noticeable way.

Microsoft did not announce if Havok will continue to provide physics for third-party games, nor how much the acquisition cost. With that being said, we’ll have to keep an eye out for how Microsoft continues cross-platform support, when it comes to gaming.