avok today announced that the company will offer the PC version of its physics and animation software product – Havok Complete – for download free of charge. Available for non-commercial use, Havok Complete for the PC will be freely downloadable in May 2008.

Havok’s core platform, Havok Complete combines the Havok Physics engine and Havok Animation, the company’s character animation solution. Havok Complete is already the most popular solution in the cross-platform AAA games market, featuring technology used in over 200 games. By making Havok Complete for the PC freely downloadable, Havok will further build on its position by removing the barriers to entry for the large number of independent developers, academic institutions and enthusiasts in the PC space. 

“Havok has an excellent revenue base generated by sales of our three products across multiple platforms and into multiple industries,” said David O’Meara, Managing Director at Havok. “This enables us to make an industry-changing move and opens up a much broader market for products such as Havok Behavior – and our new products Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction – that really come alive when adopted on top of our core platform, Havok Complete.”

Havok has entered into an agreement with Intel, Havok’s parent company, under which approved game developers on the PC platform can execute a commercial distribution license with Havok for free.

“Intel is very pleased to be sponsoring this direction in the PC market.  This aligns well with our ongoing strategy of putting the best software tools in the hands of PC games developers,” said Renee J. James, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Software and Solutions Group, Intel Corporation.

In addition to the PC software download, Havok also unveiled two new software products, Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction at this year’s Game Developers Conference. Havok Cloth and Destruction provide artists with dramatically increased control over interactive cloth and destructible objects within games.

With the announcement of this and XNA games finally hitting the Xbox 360, even the most amateur developer has a chance at creating their vision in video game form. We cannot wait to see how this trend of easy and free usage changes the landscape of the gaming industry.