14 DAY TRIAL // After having announced its collaboration with Sony Computer Entertainment to deliver the physics support to the company's successful PlayStation 3 gaming console, Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA has just announced that it has also signed an agreement to become a third-party tool solution provider for the Wii gaming console. According to the announcement, the NVIDIA PhysX technology SDK (Software Development Kit) is now available to registered Wii developers. What this essentially means is that, although Wii gaming consoles are built on an ATI graphics chip, some of the upcoming gaming applications will be developed to support PhysX.
“Nintendo has reshaped the home entertainment and video game market with the success of the Wii console. Adding a PhysX SDK for Wii is key to our cross-platform strategy and integral to the business model for our licensed game developers and publishers,” said Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of content and technology at NVIDIA. “With NVIDIA PhysX technology, developers can easily author more realistic game environments for the evolving demands of a broad class of Wii gamers.”
As computer users already know, NVIDIA has been promoting its physics solutions ever since it acquired Ageia. With the new announcement the company is confirming its strong interest in the market for gaming consoles. Although NVIDIA isn't providing Nintendo with the graphics processing unit inside the Wii gaming console, the company now offers its own support with the best-selling gaming console currently available on the market.
NVIDIA will now provide developers, animators, level designers, and artists creating for the Wii console with support for its highly appreciated PhysX technology. The recently made announcements regarding the company's PhysX technology and the Nintendo Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 come days away from the Game Developers Conference 2009, starting on March 23 in San Francisco, California. This is the place where NVIDIA will be further promoting its CUDA and PhysX technologies as a means to improve gaming applications.