Havok joins forces with Sony Ericsson for Xperia PLAY

28 Mar 2011

Irish gaming technology company Havok has forged an alliance with Sony Ericsson to optimise Havok’s physics technology for Android developers making games for the Xperia PLAY.

Havok has now fully ported all seven of its products to Gingerbread (version 2.3), the latest version of Google’s Android platform and partnered closely with Sony Ericsson to deliver a specifically optimised runtime ahead of launch.

“As part of Havok’s overall support for the Android platform, we are very pleased to partner with Sony Ericsson to put the full power of the Havok product line into the hands of Xperia PLAY developers,” Havok’s managing director David Coghlan explained.

“We were extremely impressed by the performance of the Xperia PLAY and the ease with which we were able to port and optimise our technology to the platform. This will enable developers to use Havok technology to create cinematic, rich 3D immersive games for Android smartphones with Xperia PLAY in the forefront,” Coghlan added.

Global gaming empire

Havok, an Intel-owned company, was founded in Dublin in 1998, and is a leading provider of interactive software and services for digital media creators in the games and movie industries. Havok works in partnership with the world’s best-known game developers, including Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

The company’s technology powers more than 130 top gaming titles like Halo Reach, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Bioshock 2 and Fallout Las Vegas, not to mention movies like Clash of the Titans, Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix and The Matrix.

Xperia PLAY is not only a fantastic smartphone on the latest Android platform, it also offers the best mobile gaming experience available,” said Steve Walker, head of marketing at Sony Ericsson.

“We are very pleased to be working with Havok to bring new levels of cinematic and immersive gaming experiences, never before seen on smartphones, to the Android platform.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com