Microsoft has acquired the Havok 3D physics company from Intel, the company has revealed in a blog post.

Havok's software will be familiar to gamers, as its logo is present on the launch screen of more than 600 games, from Guitar Hero to The Elder Scrolls.

The middleware tool provides real-time collision, body physics, and more for video games and animation.

No details of the deal have been released, but Microsoft said it intends to continue licensing the tool to developers.

What Microsoft plans to do beyond that apparently lies in "building the most complete cloud service, which we’ve just started to show through games like Crackdown 3".

A demo of that sandbox title drew attention at E3 for its cloud-based destruction model, which uses Microsoft's servers to process the complex physics involved.

Crackdown 3 launches next year for the Xbox One, and will be one of many games to feature the now Microsoft-owned Havok logo on its box.