Alias|Wavefront has signed an agreement with Microsoft Corp. to become an official tools and middleware developer for the Xbox Video Game System. Xbox, Microsoft's next-generation gaming system scheduled for release this fall, is positioned to become one of the most advanced on the market. Alias|Wavefront's Maya software, with its powerful modeling and animation toolsets and its open, extensible API is strongly established in the game development market as the package of choice for top quality interactive entertainment with many of the top-selling next-generation games producers. Already developers of Xbox games anxious to take advantage of the hardware capabilities of the soon-to-be-released platform are turning to Maya to achieve film-quality graphics and animation. "Game developers looking to create the most graphically advanced future-generation titles need look no farther than the Xbox," states Seamus Blackley, Xbox technology officer. "A key part of the design process is having access to the richest, most robust and flexible 3D graphics software. In order to turn a creative vision into reality the game designer must have the right tools. We're very excited to have Alias|Wavefront in the Xbox fold."