Microsoft acquires Havok from Intel

Microsoft has acquired Havok, a game-development technology provider, from Intel for an undisclosed amount.

Havok has worked with the leading game publishers and developers, including Microsoft Games Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment, Nintendo and others, for 15-plus years.

Havok's physics technology is designed to provide real-time collision-detection in three dimensions.

From Microsoft's announcement on October 2 of the Havok acquisition:

"As we welcome Havok to the Microsoft family, we will continue to work with developers to create great gaming experiences, and continue to license Havok's development tools to partners. We believe that Havok is a fantastic addition to Microsoft's existing tools and platform components for developers, including DirectX 12, Visual Studio and Microsoft Azure."

Even though Microsoft leadership has been realigning the company as of late to focus on Microsoft's core software and services strengths, Microsoft isn't abandoning gaming.

Microsoft officials see gaming as a key way to monetize Windows, moving forward, as well as another way for the company to maintain a presence on iOS, Android and other non-Microsoft platforms. And Xbox One will soon be upgraded to Windows 10, making Xbox consoles another element in Microsoft's Windows 10 devices ecosystem.