Middle ground: the use of third-party middleware within the entertainment realm is expanding.(industry outlook)

Middleware, that sometimes thin layer of technology that sits between consumer hardware and games and other entertainment software, is an important but rarely noticed (by anyone other than developers) component of today's entertainment applications.

In the early days of the video game business, developers generally built their games from the hardware up, designing and implementing all of the higher level technologies that made their products run. Industry pioneers such as Id Software (maker of Doom and Quake) and others wowed gamers again and again as they laid the technological foundation for modern 3D gaming.

Today, many of these core technologies are available ready to run from third-party sources, and they're helping developers roll out their games faster and for less money than ever before. Perhaps more importantly, middleware is allowing an increasing percentage of development dollars and time to be spent on content creation--the real differentiator of a killer game.

Almost all games now rely on at least some third-party technologies--mainly low-level products such as audio libraries and other fundamental components. However, an increasing number are built on higher level middleware systems, including physics and artificial intelligence, network software, and complete game engines.

A recent market study, Middleware for Interactive Entertainment 2006-2011, by Acacia Research Group, estimates that annual spending on third-party middleware for console and PC game development will reach nearly $79 million in 2006 and will grow to more than $108 million by 2011.

Most of that total (around 48 percent in 2006) is being spent on game engines from providers such as Epic Games (Unreal), Id Software (Quake), and Emergent (Gamebryo). Low-level middleware, such as the foundation graphics and audio technologies provided by vendors like RAD Game Tools (Granny, Bink), make up another large chunk of the total (about 31 percent).

Physics and AI systems account for the majority of the remaining spending (just over 13 percent combined), followed by network technologies and other high-level middleware products. It is noteworthy, however, that some of the most interesting products available today fall into that smallest final category--this includes such cool technologies as IDV's SpeedTree natural vegetation system.