Discreet and Criterion announce strategic partnership

Discreet have announced a strategic partnership with Criterion Software, the makers of RenderWare middleware technology.
The partnership aims to develop, deliver and promote innovative solutions specifically designed to improve the current and future games development pipeline between Discreet's 3ds max modelling, animation and rendering solution, and Criterion's RenderWare software.
Both companies will collaborate on integrating the 3D content creation process with 'on-target viewing' capabilities, allowing games developers to preview content on multiple games console platforms.
This joint initiative is being delivered as a response to games developers' and publishers' increased need to deliver best-selling console and PC titles to market faster.
In addition, it will help enable them to repurpose existing game assets to maximise the opportunities presented by the emerging mobile gaming market platforms, such as Nokia's N-Gage.
Discreet General Manager and Autodesk Vice President, Paul Lypaczewski said: "Discreet and Criterion have been working alongside each other in the games market delivering great workflow solutions for PlayStation 2 and Xbox console development.
"We are excited to expand our relationship further to evolve the future games development pipeline, as well as to provide seamless technologies for games companies to deliver high quality content within the fast-growing mobile sector."
Mike King, Chief Operations Officer, Criterion Software added: "We are constantly striving to provide our customers with the very best tools with which they can effectively deliver the very best games on any platform.
“Discreet's 3ds max technology has a huge uptake within the development community, and with RenderWare being the middleware technology of choice, it therefore makes absolute sense for us to combine our efforts to help developers further exploit the workflow benefits that come from using RenderWare and 3ds max together - and that goes for any game content for any platform."
(MM)