French Devs Partner For Common Middleware Standard

Five French developers -- Darkworks, Kylotonn, Load, White Birds Productions, and Wizarbox, with the support of French engineering schools -- have announced they have united to establish the Play All consortium, which aims to secure the development of its own cross-platform toolchain standard. The five companies will set up a common game technology company and technology center dedicated to housing the middleware project, and plan to assemble a team of more than 40 engineers over the next 2 years. The consortium plans to target all major hardware platforms, hoping to provide wide access to the toolchain to French and international developers interested in sharing technology and adopting a common standard. Additionally, the consortium will establish an interest group in 2008, at which time it also expects to have a beta prepared. Parisian business cluster Cap Digital has backed the Play All initiative with a 13M€ ($19 million) budget, and the city and region of Paris and the French Minister of industry have all combined to provide 6.5M€ ($9.6 million) in funding. Paris Mayor Betrand Delanoe said, "Paris in the 21st century will not confine itself to conserving its rich heritage. We also need to build a city that's fit for the future and prepared to meet the competitive challenges of the next 20 years. The city needs to provide attractive conditions to foster capital formation and job creation in the human services industry, the biotechnology sector and cutting-edge digital technologies."