Alias/Wavefront's Maya Used To Create Top Four PlayStation 2 Titles; Top-Selling Holiday Game Titles Achieve Graphic Excellence Through Maya
Business Wire - February 13, 2001 12:13
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 2001--Alias|Wavefront(TM), an SGI (NYSE:SGI) company, today announced that its Maya(R) 3D animation and effects software was used to create the top four selling December 2000 titles for the PlayStation(R) 2 (PS2).
PS2 is the leading "next-generation" game console -- next-generation is a term used to describe the latest game engine technology with the highest graphics and animation capabilities. Research from PC Data Inc. shows Electronic Arts' (EA) Madden NFL 2001 leading the list of top-sellers for December with SSX: Snowboard Supercross (EA) second, Tekken Tag Tournament (Namco) third, and NHL 2001 (EA) fourth. Moreover, all the game development companies whose titles made it into the top ten list are Alias|Wavefront customers using Maya for the creation of game graphics such as characters, environments and effects.
"Maya, with its integrated modeling, animation, and dynamics toolsets has become one of the dominant technologies in the game development market," said Tom Harper, Alias|Wavefront Games Manager. "Maya's open, extensible, API allows programmers access to the data they need and provides the entire team with a strong pipeline based around a unified, flexible environment."
The current version of the Maya software, Maya 3, demonstrates the company's continuing commitment to game developers through features such as Trax(TM) (non-linear animation and motion editing/layering), new polygonal modeling, and advanced texture mapping and painting capabilities. In addition, with the software's upcoming availability on Mac(R) OS X and Linux(R), Maya -- already available on the IRIX(R) and Windows NT(R) platforms -- gives next generation game developers more operating system options than any other 3D graphics and animation package on the market.
Top Titles
Five of the top-ten holiday PS2 titles were created by sports game-developer heavyweight, Electronic Arts. "Captivating graphics are one of the primary ingredients in any successful game," says John Rix, Director, Digital Production Services at EA. "Alias|Wavefront has been adding features to Maya which address our game production needs and we have made it an integral part of our 3D pipelines. Maya's flexibility and extensibility has made it indispensable on some of our major hit titles."
An examination of the list of best selling PS2 titles shows not only that Maya was used in the development of the top four games, it was used in six of the top ten. Additionally, every game development company on the top 10 list is an Alias|Wavefront customer using Maya. Research from PC Data indicates that the top 10 best selling PS2 games for December 2000 were:
GAME PUBLISHER DEVELOPER
------------------------------- ---------------------- -------------
1. Madden NFL(TM) 2001 Electronic Arts(R) EA/Tiburon
(EA)
2. SSX: Snowboard Supercross EA EA
3. Tekken Tag Tournament(TM) Namco(R) Namco
4. NHL(R) 2001 EA EA
5. FIFA(R) 2001 EA EA
6. Midnight Club Street Racing Take Two Angel Studios
Interactive(R)/
Rockstar
7. Smuggler's Run Take Two Interactive/ Angel Studios
Rockstar
8. Nascar 2001 EA EA
9. Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Midway(R) Midway
Round 2
10. NFL GameDay 2001 Sony Computer Sony Computer
Entertainment Entertainment
Says Emmanuel Valdez, Lead Artist, Midway Games Inc. "Alias|Wavefront's commitment to the game development community is evidenced by the fact that they have been aggressively pouring game functionality into Maya since version 2. At Midway we have always used a broad range of 3D animation tools in production, however in developing 'Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Round 2' we found ourselves turning to Maya for all of our challenging modeling and texture mapping tasks."
About Alias|Wavefront
As the world's leading innovator of 2D and 3D graphics technology, Alias|Wavefront develops software for the film and video, games, interactive media, industrial design, and visualization markets.
Games customers include Acclaim Entertainment, Core Design, Electronic Arts, Factor 5, Kodiak Interactive, LucasArts Entertainment Company, Midway Games, Naughty Dog, Nihilistic, Nintendo, RareLtd., Retro Studios, Sega, Single Trac, Sony Computer Entertainment, Square, Timeline Studios, Valkyrie Studios, Relic Entertainment and Westwood Studios.
Entertainment customers include Blue Sky, Cinesite, CNN, Digital Domain, Dream Quest Images, Electronic Arts, Industrial Light & Magic, Pacific Data Images (PDI), Pixar, Sony Pictures Imageworks, The Walt Disney Company, and Warner Feature Animation.
Alias|Wavefront is a wholly owned, independent software company of SGI(TM) with headquarters in Toronto and technical centers in Seattle and Santa Barbara. Please visit the Alias|Wavefront website at www.aliaswavefront.com or call 1-800-447-2542 in North America. Readers in Europe can call +800 4125 4125 or 800 791 174 in Italy; 353 1 890 2244 in the Middle East and Africa; 81 3 3470 8285 in Asia-Pacific; and 525 203 0030 in Latin America for the nearest sales office or authorized reseller in their area.
Alias|Wavefront, Trax and the Alias|Wavefront logo are trademarks of Alias|Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited. IRIX is a registered trademark and SGI is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Maya is a registered trademark and the Maya logo is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc., exclusively used by Alias|Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited. Electronic Arts is a registered trademark of Electronic Arts, Inc. Mac OS X is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. registered in the United States and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Windows NT is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Playstation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. Namco is registered trademark and Tekken Tag Tournament is a trademark of Namco, Ltd. FIFA is a registered trademark of the Federation Internationale de Football Association. NFL is a trademark or registered trademark of the National Football League. NHL is a registered trademark of the National Hockey League. Midway is a trademark of Midway Games, Inc. Take Two Interactive is a registered trademark of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. All other products or companies mentioned are trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. Alias|Wavefront, 210 King Street East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5A 1J7, Tel: 416-362-9181, FAX: 416-369-6140.
Press images available at: aliaswavefront.com
Note to Editors: In the company name Alias|Wavefront, the "|" between "Alias" and "Wavefront was changed to a slash ("/") in the headline for transmission purposes only.
CONTACT: Alias|Wavefront
Donna Teggart, 416/874-8592
dteggart@aw.sgi.com |
