News

Silicon Studio acquires real-time global illumination tool Enlighten from ARM subsidiary Geomerics

Where does that leave Geomerics?

Date Type Companies involved Size
June 15th, 2017 acquisition Geomerics
Silicon Studio
Not disclosed
Silicon Studio acquires real-time global illumination tool Enlighten from ARM subsidiary Geomerics

Tokyo-based middleware developer Silicon Studio has acquired real-time global illumination tool Enlighten from its original developer Geomerics.

Silicon Studio now has full licensing, development, and support rights for the lighting tool. It will begin implementing Enlighten within its own tools to improve its available services.

The new owner will make use of Geomerics' existing overseas customers to push its own products to a wider market. Silicon will also continue to develop Enlighten, and provide support for all existing customers.

Light it up

The sale raises some questions about Geomerics' future, given that Enlighten was its main technology. The ARM subsidiary does not list any other technologies on its website and has not revealed plans to work on anything new.

ARM acquired Geomerics back in December 2013 for an undisclosed sum. At the time, ARM's EVP and GM of its Media Processing Division Pete Hutton said that "empowering Geomerics' portfolio with ARM's graphics capabilities and market reach will be transformative for the user experiences in future mobile and entertainment devices."

In April 2017, Silicon Studio launched its C# game development engine Xenko after a two year beta. Enlighten will likely be rolled into the Xenko package in some form following this acquisition.


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Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.