Valve has today confirmed that Arkane Studios, best known for its first game, Arx Fatalis, is the second company to license its Source engine technology. Source is the same engine that Valve is currently using to develop Half-Life 2, and it offers developers the ability to create expressive digital actors with convincing artificial intelligence and physically simulated worlds.

　　"It is a very comfortable feeling for a developer to be able to concentrate on the content of its game and have access to a set of stunning features and capabilities," said Raphael Colantonio, CEO of Arkane Studios. "Source is solid, performant, and extremely complete in terms of the amount of innovative features. But more important, it is also open and flexible enough to allow us to build creatively upon, without having to bare the technological risks. Working with Valve is not only a fan's dream, but also an excellent opportunity to be one of the fortunate developers in the world to benefit from the Source engine's most impressive features."

　　"The Half-Life technology was pushed well beyond our expectations by the MOD development community," said Gabe Newell, Valve's managing director. "This provided invaluable knowledge for producing a cutting-edge, flexible, and easy-to-use set of tools and engine technology."

　　No details regarding Arkane Studios' Source-based project have been confirmed at this time, save for the fact that the game will be released on the PC. We'll bring you more information as soon as it becomes available.