Fuel Added to Elder Scrolls MMO Fire

Fuel keeps being added to the Elder Scrolls MMO fire with an announcement today that Zenimax has licensed the Simutronics HeroEngine and will use it in connection with their MMO "currently getting underway". This of course follows the registration for the domain name ElderScrollsOnline.com by Zenimax earlier.

Simutronics Licenses HeroEngine to ZeniMax Online Studios for MMO Game Project

Simutronics announced today that ZeniMax Online Studios has licensed the Simutronics HeroEngine. ZeniMax Online will use HeroEngine in connection with their massively multiplayer game (MMO) project currently getting underway.

MMO games are one of the fastest growing segments of the videogames market, with billions of dollars in global revenues - projected to reach $13 billion per year by 2011 according to DFC Intelligence. Millions of people around the world come together in online MMO games such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, and Lineage to cooperate and compete with each other in a virtual world.

“ZeniMax Online selected HeroEngine because we determined it will serve our needs best,” said Matt Firor, President of ZeniMax Online Studios. “That fact that we can get up and running with meaningful art and content in the near term makes the HeroEngine a perfect fit for us."

Simutronics first launched HeroEngine as a licensed development platform in 2006 after five years of development. Since that time the Simutronics team has added dozens of new features and integrated key technologies from the leading middleware vendors in the videogame industry. HeroEngine is being used worldwide by development teams looking for faster time to market through the HeroEngine’s unique collaborative development as well as unique tools for rapid prototyping and world building and a content pipeline that is optimized for the needs of MMO development teams.

“We are thrilled to have ZeniMax using HeroEngine,” said David Whatley, founder and CEO of Simutronics. “We have been fans of ZeniMax’s Bethesda Softworks games for years, and to have ZeniMax Online Studios as our latest licensee is an honor and strong validation of our team’s hard work and great design.”