Alias|Wavefront and Microsoft Sign Strategic Xbox Development Agreement

Alias|Wavefront has signed an agreement with Microsoft Corp. to become an official tools and middleware developer for the Xbox Video Game System. Alias|Wavefront's Maya software, with its modeling and animation toolsets and its open, extensible API is strongly established in the game development market. Developers of Xbox games, anxious to take advantage of the hardware capabilities of the soon-to-be-released platform, will be able to use Maya to achieve film-quality graphics and animation. Alias|Wavefront's Maya software has also played a significant role in the creation of the much talked-about Xbox title, Munch's Oddysee: the game designed by Oddworld Inhabitants, Inc. that Bill Gates previewed at the recent CES conference. "For Oddworld's cinematic production needs we used Maya because it is the strongest complete package solution on the market today for the artistically inclined," states Lorne Lanning, President/Creative Director, Oddworld Inhabitants, Inc. "When it comes to modeling, character animation, atmospheric and particle effects, Maya has served us well. Having a single package that allows us to design our own interface, write our own utilities, run scripting and which gives us the ability to pick from a large selection of existing plug-ins, adds up to more time focused on the quality of content and less time wasted wrestling with tools."