Intel buys Dublin games firm Havok
Dublin games middleware company Havok is to be taken over by chip manufacturer Intel.
The deal will see the company that grew out of Trinity College become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intel.
Havok’s software tools have been used on games such as BioShock,
Harry Potter, Half Life 2, MotorStorm, and Second Life, and upcoming
titles such as Halo 3, Alan Wake, and Indiana Jones (pictured above).
FULL STORY: Dublin gaming firm snapped up by Intel
Lisa Geiran, UCD; Barry Dolan, Shamrock Rovers FC, Karina Kelly, UCD.
-
Directory: Producers
Games Toaster’s Irish Computer Games Directory
PHASE ONE: Developers, Publishers, and Middleware Providers
After vastly expanding our news archive’s category tags, the following is the first phase of Games Toaster’s Irish Computer Games Directory.
Part one coverers producers (developers, publishers, and middleware
providers etc). This first phase, like what is to come, will be
dynamic; but also contains historic entrees.
The directory comes after many years of looking at the idea of a
database or similar. It is planned to expand from producers to every
area of computer games in Ireland.
NOTE: While
every reasonable effort has been made to make sure all information is
accuracy, we can not guarantee such. Please send error reports to
errors@gamestoaster.com. Other information is welcome at
directory@gamestoaster.com. As always, we can not take responsible for
other websites. Research sources: Company Registration Office, Dublin;
Google; companies’ websites; GameDevelopers.ie.
BitRabbit
C/NAME: BitRabbit
TYPE: Mobile games developer
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 2004
ADDRESS: Dublin
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.bitrabbit.net/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/bitrabbit/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
CanDo Interactive
C/NAME:
TYPE: Web games developer, middleware provider
STATUS: Active
SET UP:
ADDRESS: Belfast
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.candointeractive.com/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/cando_interactive/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
DC Studios
C/NAME: DC Studios Ireland Limited
TYPE: Developer
STATUS: Not active
SET UP: 2005
ADDRESS: Dublin
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB:
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/dc_studios/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
DemonWare
C/NAME: Demonware Limited
TYPE: Middleware provider
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 2002
ADDRESS: 69 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1
OTHER LOCATIONS: Los Angeles; Vancouver
WEB: http://www.demonware.net/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/demonware/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Eirplay Games
C/NAME: Eirplay Limited
TYPE: Mobile games developer
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 2001
ADDRESS: Digital Depot, Thomas Street, Dublin 8
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.eirplaygames.com/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/eirplay_games/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Frantic Games
C/NAME:
TYPE:
STATUS: Active
SET UP:
ADDRESS: Athlone
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.franticgames.com/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/frantic_games/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Frogwares
C/NAME:Frogwares Ireland Limited
TYPE:
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 11/04/2000
ADDRESS: 22 Northumberland Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland
OTHER LOCATIONS: France; Ukraine
WEB: http://www.frogwares.com/
GT:
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft May 02, 2006
Gmedia
C/NAME:
TYPE:
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 2004
ADDRESS: 4 Michael Street, Limerick
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.gmedia.ie/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/gmedia/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Havok
C/NAME: Havok.com Limited
TYPE: Middleware provider
STATUS: Active
SET UP:2000
ADDRESS: Digital Depot, Thomas Street, Dublin 8
OTHER LOCATIONS: San Francisco
WEB: http://www.havok.com/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/havok/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Kapooki Games
C/NAME: Kapooki Games Limited
TYPE: Games developer
STATUS: ** Liquidated **
SET UP: 2003
ADDRESS: Dublin
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.kapookigames.com/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/kapooki_games/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Kerbyware
C/NAME: Kerbyware Limited
TYPE: Mobile games developer
STATUS:
SET UP: 2005
ADDRESS: 82 Edgewood Lawn, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.kerbyware.com/
GT:
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Meedja
C/NAME: Meedja Limited
TYPE: Web games developer
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 2000
ADDRESS: Dundalk
OTHER LOCATIONS: Dublin
WEB: http://www.meedja.com/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/meedja/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Microsoft/Xbox
TYPE: PR, marketing, distributor
C/NAME:
STATUS: Active
SET UP:
ADDRESS:
STATUS:
SET UP:
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB:
GT:
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Nephin Games
C/NAME: Nephin Games / Nephin Games Limited / Nephin Games Investments Limited
TYPE: Mobile games developer
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 2003/2005/2006
ADDRESS: Galway Tech Centre, Mervue Business Park, Galway
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.nephingames.com/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/nephin_games/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Phooka Entertainment
C/NAME: n/a
TYPE: Games developer
STATUS: Active
SET UP:
ADDRESS: Derry
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.phookaentertainment.com/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/phooka_entertainment/
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Pooka Games
C/NAME: Pooka Games Limited
TYPE: Games developer
STATUS: ** Dissolved **
SET UP: 2002
ADDRESS:
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB:
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/pooka_games/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
PopCap
C/NAME: Popcap Games International Limited
TYPE: Web games developer
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 2005
ADDRESS: 30 Herbert Street, Dublin 2
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.popcap.com/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/popcap/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Purplenose Games
C/NAME:
TYPE:
STATUS:
SET UP:
ADDRESS: 73 Fishermans Wharf, Ringsend, Dublin 4
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.purplenose.com/
GT:
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland
C/NAME: Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland Limited
TYPE: PR; marketing; distributor
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 1999
ADDRESS: Dublin
STATUS:
SET UP:
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.playstation.ie/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/sce_ireland/
GT(2): http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/playstation/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Selatra
C/NAME: Selatra Limited
TYPE: Mobile games publisher
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 2002
ADDRESS: National Software Centre, Loughmahon Technology Park, Blackrock, Cork
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.selatra.com/
WEB(2): http://www.fonearcade.com
GT:
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
StarCave
C/NAME: Star Cave Studios Limited
TYPE: Games developer
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 2005
ADDRESS: Unit 10, Galway Tech Centre, Mervue Business Park, Galway
OTHER LOCATIONS: Austin, Texas; Australia (studios)
WEB: http://www.starcave.com/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/starcave/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Taintech
C/NAME: Taintech Creative Studios Limited
TYPE: Games developer
STATUS: ** Closed 2000, Dissolved 2003 **
SET UP: 1997
ADDRESS: Dundalk, Co Louth
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB:
GT:
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
TKO
C/NAME:
TYPE:
STATUS:
SET UP: 2003
ADDRESS: 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB:
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/tko/index.html
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Torc Interactive
C/NAME: Torc Interactive Limited
TYPE: Games developer, middleware provider
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 1999
ADDRESS: Drumhaggart, Muff, Co Donegal
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://torcinteractive.com/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/torc_interactive/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Ubisoft
C/NAME:
TYPE: PR; marketing; distributor
STATUS: Active
SET UP:
ADDRESS:
STATUS:
SET UP:
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB:
GT:
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Upstart Games
C/NAME: Upstart Games Limited
TYPE: Mobile games developer, publisher, and distributor
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 2003
ADDRESS: 8 Grattan Court, Grattan Street, Dublin 2
OTHER LOCATIONS: Tokyo; New York
WEB: http://www.upstartgames.com/
GT: http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/upstart_games/
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
Vivendi Universal Games
C/NAME: Vivendi Universal Games Ireland Limited
TYPE: Localisation, testing
STATUS: Active
SET UP: 1995
ADDRESS: Eastpoint Business Park, Fairview, Dublin 3
OTHER LOCATIONS:
WEB: http://www.vugames.ie/
GT:
NOTES:
ABOVE LAST UPDATED: First draft April 17, 2006
NOTE: Old content being picked up as new
Google News and other sites have picked up some of our old news as new.
UPDATE: This looks like it is happening again
for different reasons — on request, Google News changed the RSS news
feed they use to obtain our news. The new feed is located at
http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/rss.xml
In order to make our news archive more accessible, Games Toaster is
currently expanding the list of categories tags on our news archive;
for every new category created a new page is automatically created for
the category, apparently because of this Google News and other sites
have found our archived news items and listed them as current news –
we apologies for any inconvenience caused.
The beast that is Google News picked up at least one new category “e3_2005″ at /games_toaster/e3_2005/, this looks to be causing the most redirects.
The most notable other site which has linked to our archive is the Inquirer, who kindly picked up our news article on ‘Streaming music over Live may breach laws‘.
This article was however published last May; we list the date of
publication at the end of articles. We would like to extend our
apologies for any inconvenience caused to the Inquirer, and their
readers.
Before proceeding with more tags we will publish highly visible
banners on this sites side panels which should be seen on any page of
this site.
This clarification
has been added to all recently created tags, and should appear at the top of the relevant
pages.
DemonWare expands Ubisoft relationship
Dublin-based DemonWare has expanded their relationship with
publisher Ubisoft. The games publisher will now use multiplayer
middleware by DemonWare in multiple games across all formats.
“The combination of our creative talents with DemonWare’s innovative
technology will benefit the players first and foremost with original
multiplayer features on our upcoming games” commented Olivier Chappe,
Director-Online Technology Group, Ubisoft.
Kotaku.com’s best poster of GDC
Dublin games company DemonWare wins kotaku.com’s GDC: Best Poster of Show award [found vie here]:
Irish games companies in the news
The Sunday Business Post reports the flock of some Irish games companies to California this week, for the Game Developers Conference 2006. A second article covers the Galway-based Nephin Games raising $1 million in funding.
‘Game on for Irish tech firms‘
centres on Demonware, as well as Havok, Torc Interactive, Upstart
Games, and Selatra, the article also lists off BitRabbit, Gmedia,
Eirplay Games, Meedja, and PopCap.
To make
itself seen among the big players, Demonware is hiring a San Francisco
cable car on wheels to transport people around San Jose. The company
hired a fleet of Hummer limousines for last year’s GDC, but it has
been prudent with its cash.It has raised just over
Demonware middleware for CoD 2
State Engine, network play middleware software by the Dublin based company Demonware, is to be used in Activision’s ‘Call of Duty 2: Big Red One’ for PS2, Xbox, and GameCube.
“By utilizing DemonWare’s middleware, the development team is able
to focus on creating great gameplay experiences while knowing that the
technical aspects of the multiplayer component are managed”, commented
Chuck Huebner, Head of Activision’s Worldwide Studios.Recently, Paradigm, an Atari/Infogrames developer, sign to up to use
DemonWare, their multiplayer enabling code was also used in Empire
Interactive’s soon-to-be released Starship Troopers game.While based in Dublin, DemonWare has sales and support offices in
Los Angeles and Vancouver. Founded in 2003, the company is privately
funded, including investors such as the state owned Enterprise Ireland,
Dublin Seed Capital Fund, and what the company terms as ’several
specialist private investors’.“We’re a relatively small little company and we’re come from nowhere
in a short space of time”, DemonWare co-founder Dylan Collins told the Sunday Tribune
newspaper, adding in reference to rival Gamespy taking notice of them
in stock market flotation documents, “All of a sudden we were a ‘major
competitive threat’, which was nice”.Our Gamedevelopers.ie E3 article
We should have mention this before - Games Toaster’s article on E3, with a focus on the activities of Irish companies, was published on Gd.ie some time ago:
When half of the US film industry is on the other side of the world,
the games industry invades Los Angeles for their own version of the
Cannes Film Festival, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3.
According to the organizers, over 70,000 people attended this year’s
expo.
What’s coming?
Monday started the week off
with a bang; Sony Computer Entertainment’s pre-E3 press conference
was always expected to reveal the new PlayStation console, what was
delivered just wasn’t expected. Graphics, planned specifications, and
claimed performance for the PS3 overshadowed Microsoft’s Xbox 360,
and Nintendo’s Revolution, as the talk-of-the-show for the remainder
of the week. Although deep scepticism clouded many minds, it was mostly
of those who had not seen the PS3 footage.At the event, Sony showed in-game videos of near modern film CGI,
apparently recorded from PS3-like architecture. Two were highlighted as
running in real time, one of which was a version of EA’s ‘Fight
Night’, where the impact of a punch on one boxer’s face showed
ripples through his face, as well as showing detailed facial
expressions, such as fear and rage.Other eyebrow raisers were ‘Eyedentify’ - using Eyetoy to put
the player into the game; ‘MotorStorm’ - crazy car and bike race
through a mud filled track; ‘Formula 1′, and ‘The Getaway’
(screen test) - both just looking stunning, F1 with the addition of
stunning crashes, and ‘KillZone’ - with such an amount of detail,
cries of ‘render’ and ‘fake’ can still be heard on internet
forums. Although later in the week there was somewhat impressive 360
games running on the show floor, and behind close doors, the 360 is at
this point outclassed by the PS3.On the matter of the PS3 videos, while also referring to the running
Xbox 360 games at E3 (on development kits), Michel Cassius, Senior
Director Xbox Platform Marketing in Europe said, “it’s not
about fancy technical demos that we could have done years ago, we can
do that, we can (do) technical demos. That’s no problem. We can do
nice videos — anybody can do that”, adding that “Not everyone can
have games, real stuff, happening”.But it wasn’t just at the cores of the consoles where the PS3
topped the 360, it boasts connectivity to seven wireless controllers
out-of-the-box using Bluetooth to 360’s four, and support for up to
two high definition televisions to 360’s one (but how many people
have even one HDTV?).Behind closed doors at the EA stand, the company was again showing
some of the most mind-denting next generation games, at least
graphically speaking. This time is was Xbox 360 titles, besides a
‘Need for Speed’ game, all were sports titles. The next generation
part? From the blades of grass in the Tiger Woods game, to the detail
of stadiums, clothing, players’ faces, and in some cases the detail
of the audience.
Nintendo released their own unexpected surprise, saying that their
entire back catalogue would be made available for download on their
sleek Revolution console, the prototype shown was not much larger then
three CD cases, however the lack of specifications posed the question
were Nintendo really in the ‘next generation’ race.This generation
Whatever about the next
generation, ‘Black’ was one of the games that showed there is still
much life in the current systems. The PS2 and Xbox first person
shooter, by the now EA-owned developer Criterion, looks set to
translate their Burnout formula to the shooter genre. It is set for
release in February 2006.Besides the Revolution, and their minuscule redesigned GBA, Nintendo
looks to have a repeat of the Pokémon craze on their hands with
Nintendog for their handheld DS system. In all practicalities, it’s
an advance version of Tamagotchi where the player looks after their
virtual pet, and just another use for the DS’s touch screen (petting
virtual dogs).The Movies, Lionhead’s slightly the Sims-look-alike simulator, is
turning out to be quite complex. From hiring actors, dealing with their
problems (weight, relationships, addictions), building studio lots, to
actually making a film, and saving it. Having a hit or not, depends on
originality, profits, current events and popular culture of the day –
the in-game timeline goes from the 1920s to the present year.Irish Presence
The Irish presence was for the
most part contained in the private meeting rooms of the Kentia hall,
hidden away under the main South Hall. Havok had their own rooms, while
Enterprise Ireland housed DemonWare, Nephin Games, and Starcave
Studios. DemonWare replaced their GDC limo with an open-top bus
rambling around the outskirts of the LA Conference Centre.Thursday night saw Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland hosting their
‘Irish Dinner’ at a restaurant on Sunset Boulevard for the second
year running. The event moved from last year’s packed (cramped)
one-long-table affair, to just across and down the strip to a more
spacious venue for an even greater crowd, again a mixture of
competitors, publishers, developers, middleware providers, retailers,
distributors, and journalists — from Microsoft, and EA, to Gamestop,
Smyths, Xtra-vision, to the Star and the Evening Herald.Havok, as well as having over 50 games on the show floor using their
technology including ‘Age of Empires III’, ‘Perfect Dark Zero’,
‘Destroy all Humans’, and ‘Rainbow Six: Lockdown’, the middleware
company confirmed their support for the PS3, stating they will optimize
their products for the new console. In a release at the start of E3,
Jeff Yates of Havok said, “We realize that game developers are facing
an enormous challenge to keep up with player expectations, while trying
to manage the transition to next generation multi-core game platforms.
Havok products reduce the risk and costs game developers are facing, by
offering production-tested, cross-platform solutions that free up the
creative talents of game developers, while taking advantage of the
unique power of new game systems”.Nephin Games’ Alan Duggan told us that for them GDC was about
publishers and distributors, while E3 had a lot more to do with
licensing of brands, “some distribution partners, but primarily the
focus has been on brand owners”. “We’ve had a brilliant week”.
“We’re combining two hot topics at the moment, which is mobile
gaming and mobile marketing”, Duggan said, the mixture is “putting
us in a sweet spot at the moment”. On their future games, “With out
giving too much away”, after their recent Kickboxing game more
fighting games are lined up, along with a racing game.Keith Killilea of the Galway-based Star Cave Studios was - as he was
at GDC - busy with publisher meetings, “We’ve pretty much talked to
every publisher,” Killilea said, sounding somewhat exhausted - it was
Friday and the first warning to leave the conference centre had sounded
over the intercom. Star Cave recently acquired three indie studios,
Staridia in Brazil, Cellien in the US, and Single Cell in Australia,
all three of the studios were at E3 with Starcave. The company has kept
most of the staff, and currently have two first person shooters in
development, ‘Illumina’ and ‘Terra: Formations’ both using the Torque
game engine. Formations will feature RTS elements.With 12 employees currently on the payroll, they plan to expand to
20/25 in the next few months. “Most of the new crew coming on board
will be going to Galway”, explained Killilea, “there’s a lot of
Irish guys and girls abroad” who want to move back to Ireland. “A
year ago Star Cave Studios was only a dream”, he said, while on the
subject of games development in Ireland he ambitiously states, “We’re
going to be no. 1″.On the Irish games industry and government support, Killilea said
that Enterprise Ireland “are doing some great things, but we still
need for the government to allow Enterprise Ireland to help us out
more”.Star Cave’s flagship game is titled ‘the 14 Tribes’ and is
based on the mythical Ireland of the folklore character Cuchulainn. As
an action-adventure game for PC and Xbox, it should include leprechauns
in some form or another, “it’s not based in Galway, but it includes
the 14 tribes of Galway”.Closing time at 4pm on Friday hits in a strange way. A mixture of
sadness as they start to role the carpet off the floor, relief that the
madness is over for another year, the dread of going headlong into LA
rush-hour traffic (even for those who weren’t driving), and the
anticipation of a year’s release of games, and at least one console
launch. If E3 2004 was ‘the year of the sequels’ then E3 2005 was
‘the year of the next generation consoles.’Author’s Bio: Cian Ginty is the editor of the Irish computer games website Games Toaster and former editor of Gamire.com. He can be contacted at cian.ginty@gamestoaster.com.
Link: Ireland’s game dev potential, courses
DemonWare founders, Sean Blanchfield, CTO, and Dylan Collins, CEO.
Ireland-based tech website,
SiliconRepublic.com, has published an article under the title ‘Irelandcan dominate games platform business‘. The piece focuses on the words of Dylan
Collins, CEO and co-founder of the Dublin games middleware
company, DemonWare. “People don’t realise the job opportunities that exist in
the games industry. Up until now the only games jobs were overseas. What’s
happening now is there is an opportunity for people interested in the games
industry to work at home in Ireland“,
Collins told SiliconRepublic.com. DemonWare recently got approval from Sony,
and Microsoft, to develop versions of their network-play middleware for the PS3,
and Xbox 360, respectfully.Early this month, SiliconRepublic.com also ran a story on the rising numbers of collage and university courses for computer games development,
a list of such courses can be found on GameDeveopers.ie.
