Autodesk has announced plans to acquire user interface tools and middleware company Scaleform for $36 million in cash.
Scaleform’s technology has been prominently used in the development of hundreds of video games on all major platforms, and the acquisition will expand Autodesk’s games technology and interactive media business.
The company’s flagship product, Scaleform GFx, allows development teams to more quickly and easily author game UIs and interactive 3D experiences using popular design tools: Adobe Flash and Adobe Creative Suite software. Scaleform GFx helps developers take advantage of the 3D hardware acceleration capabilities of modern systems to create cinematic quality menus, in-game heads up displays, animated textures, mini-games, and even mobile games and applications.
“The Scaleform acquisition will further Autodesk’s ability to provide customers with more complete workflows to more rapidly develop immersive 3D and casual game experiences,” said Marc Stevens, VP of games for Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “The Scaleform team will bring a wealth of expertise in creating highly optimized runtime solutions for PCs, consoles and mobile devices. We expect the integration of Scaleform to allow us to innovate faster and help further improve the game creation process for online, console, and mobile development.”
Autodesk is a leading provider of 3D content creation tools to the games industry. Autodesk is adding to its games portfolio in response to a growing industry need for more efficient, integrated content creation solutions.
As part of the acquisition, Brendan Iribe, along with Scaleform’s chief technology officer, Michael Antonov, and chief operating officer, Marc Bennett, will join the leadership team in Autodesk Media & Entertainment. Scaleform offices will remain in Greenbelt, Md.
