Havok, a leading developer of middleware for the video game industry, confirmed today that the Havok Physics engine is being used by Ensemble Studios to develop Age of Empires III, which is the latest landmark release in the award-winning franchise that has sold over 16 million units worldwide. Age of Empires III is being published by Microsoft Game Studios and will be released in the fall of 2005.

"Havok is an excellent physics engine. We were apprehensive about integrating physics into a realtime strategy game like Age of Empires 3, but Havok was very easy to integrate", said Dave Pottinger, Director of Technology at Ensemble Studios. "The developer support that we got during the integration and extension of Havok was excellent. There’s no doubt that using Havok saved us a ton of development time and allowed us to deliver a kick-ass gameplay experience to our customers. Everyone loves watching guys get thrown by cannonballs!"

The upcoming release of Havok's newest product, Havok Complete, will pave the way for new innovations in character reaction and animation and maintains Havok's current industry leadership position. As a combination of Havok Physics 3 and Havok Animation 3, Havok Complete will provide the most powerful, integrated physics and animation solution available for next generation games.

"We are very proud to be part of such a landmark game in a genre that is one of Havok's fastest growing." said David O'Meara, Chief Executive Officer of Havok. "We look forward to continuing our partnership with Ensemble Studios to ensure Havok delivers on the specific needs of our clients."