Hi Nicolas, That is a very good question. We saw a very rapid rise in mobile gaming and a need for a lower cost 3D solution in this area. The decision to introduce a product for this market was only made last spring and we wanted to get a product on the market within 6 months that ran on both Windows and OSX. There really was only one alternative once those criteria were set. However, there were also other criteria - such as the fact that the created proportion of the assets on the unity store created using Autodesk software were being created in Maya - that made us feel this was the right decision Maurice
Maurice Patel Autodesk : Tél: 514 954-7134 From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nicolas Esposito Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 11:12 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Autodesk webinar Maurice, Maybe I didn't explained myself clearly. I'm not talking about before or after the acquisition, I'm talking about the features that Softimage have since XSI 7 almost, which later improve with the addition of Facerobot. The question is again why AD decided to push more towards Maya Lite, which do not have all those features that Softimage have already tailored for game development. I'm assuming that in the future (?) maybe those features will be implemented into Maya, but right now I see 3DS more towards game development ( seeing the wide range of plugins made by game developers ) rather then Maya itself. Maya its early to judge, but still I see this "unveil" of Maya Lite very very strange 2014-03-18 16:01 GMT+01:00 Maurice Patel <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>: Actually at the time of the acquisition Maya and 3ds Max were about 50-50 in games other than Japan. Outside of Japan, Softimage's core has primarily been TVC. But this was more about building a run-time tool and so was different from all three. It was a radically different philosophy to DCC - maybe too radical. Maurice Patel Autodesk : Tél: 514 954-7134<tel:514%20954-7134> From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of Nicolas Esposito Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 10:52 AM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: Autodesk webinar Hello Maurice, What sound strange to me is this: Softimage for years had all the necessary tools in order to satisfy game development technology, which is way more advanced than 3ds and Maya. Facerobot, even if old and not updated at all in the last years, is a quick way to produce head rigs with lipsync and optionally mocap, and it generate ready-to-use models for game engines Rendermap, altough is a tool that is used right now in other 3d app, is a tool which was there since long time, same thing Ultimapper, GATOR ( which is unique and Ubisoft had to made their own GATOR inside 3DS ) and poly reduction, with many other useful tools. Not even considering that lots of companies are still using Softimage for game development, and companies like Valve and Crytek release their own plugins in order to properly use propetary model export into their game engines. What is not clear is, since Softimage had those tools for a very long time, you decided to push Maya into Game Development instead of Softimage, which was ( still, not the recent release, but for years ) the perfect candidate for that. 2014-03-18 15:40 GMT+01:00 Maurice Patel <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>>: Hi Alastair, There were many reasons behind the acquisition but the main one was because we saw an opportunity not just in ICE but also in the engineering team that was capable of creating it. As Marc Petit stated in the press release at the time: "Upon the completion of this acquisition we will be adding Softimage technology and products to our portfolio, and welcoming one of the most talented teams in the industry to Autodesk Media & Entertainment. Both will help us accelerate the work of our Games Technology Group, as we build the next-generation of real-time, interactive 3D authoring tools for games, film and television." We had plans to build a next generation technology, starting with games - we called it project skyline. The industry was in a growth period. Everyone was optimistic. And if we had succeeded we probably would not be having this conversation. maurice Maurice Patel Autodesk : Tél: 514 954-7134<tel:514%20954-7134><tel:514%20954-7134> -----Original Message----- From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>] On Behalf Of Angus Davidson Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 4:42 AM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: Re: Autodesk webinar Xsi in the hands of Dassault would have been something, Adobe not so much ;). AD bought it purely because ICE was such a threat. On 2014/03/18, 5:55 AM, "David Saber" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>> wrote: >Maurice, >Just one more question: couldn't you have realized that in 2008? Why >buy Softimage if it's just to realize you don't have enough resource to >develop it? >Back in 2008 there were other companies willing to acquire Softimage >and they would have kept developing it, not kill it. >Shame. >David >
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