Over the past year, Nintendo has been securing a lot of partnerships with middleware providers of software for game physics, rendering, multiplayer netcode, and more. Today Nintendo reached an agreement with Umbra to bring their rendering middleware to Wii U and its developers. Umbra is now an official middleware provider for the Wii U, and the company focuses on rendering optimization — its software is already found in some games, including Mass Effect 3 which will be coming to the Wii U. Many developers have used their software, including Halo devs Bungie, Killzone developer Guerrilla Games, and Square Enix. Mass Effect 3 will be the first Wii U game to feature Umbra software when it ships this Fall.
Earlier this year Nintendo revealed that it had entered a partnership with GameWare, and will offer the software free of charge to developers. The company has also teamed up with Green Hills Software for more free tools for Wii U developers. In addition, game physics software maker Havok will bring their tools to the Wii U, as will major game engine makers from CryTek, Epic Games, and Id Software. Nintendo are of course also offering their own Wii U dev kit, which includes huge software libraries and tools for developers to use in their games.
