Nintendo licenses Havok, Autodesk tech for Wii U developers

Newsbrief: Nintendo has signed worldwide licensing agreements with middleware companies Havok and Autodesk, and will offer their technologies to developers for its upcoming Wii U console. With the agreement, studios from all over the world will have access to Havok's Physics and Animation middleware when developing games for Wii U. Those technologies are used in a number of marquee titles such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and the Assassin's Creed series (Ubisoft announced Assassin's Creed III for Wii U on Monday). Nintendo will also be able to provide Wii U game developers with Autodesk's Gameware products, including user interface middleware Scaleform, artificial intelligence middleware Kynapse, and interactive character animation middleware HumanIK. Nintendo is expected to launch Wii U, the successor to its Wii home console, around the world during this year's holiday season.