Uncharted 4: A Thief's End PS4 PlayStation 4 1

We're going to assume that the majority of you reading this article have heard of Havok. Even if you don't know what the mysterious technology does, its logo has appeared during the boot sequence of so many titles that we'd be shocked if you haven't seen it before. In the simplest of terms, the engine essentially powers the physics in the majority of games – and it's just been acquired by Microsoft for an undisclosed fee.

To provide a little context, upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusives like Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and Horizon: Zero Dawn are both set to use the physics engine, so what does this acquisition mean? Well, it turns out that – much like Minecraft before it – Microsoft will continue to license the technology out to anyone and everyone that wants to use it. "We will continue to [...] license Havok's development tools to partners," a statement said. Cool.

In truth, this is probably a positive move for the engine, as Microsoft does allude that it hopes that the acquisition will further strengthen its cloud-based computing services, which we're starting to see the fruits of from a gaming persuasion in Crackdown 3. If the company does ever decide to license that technology out to others, then it's unlikely that it would deny Sony access. After all, contrary to what forum posters would have you believe, competitors can collaborate when there's money to be made.

[source blogs.microsoft.com]