Apple Confirms Purchase of UK Visual Effects Company IKinema

Apple has acquired visual effects company IKinema, based in the United Kingdom.

The iPhone maker confirmed it bought IKinema by providing its boilerplate statement to The Financial Times, saying “Apple buys smaller companies from time to time, and we generally don’t discuss our purpose or plans.”

MacRumors was first to report on Apple’s acquisition of IKinema yesterday, after being tipped off by a reader. Government filings noted an Apple lawyer had been named IKinema’s director back in mid-September.

The UK company’s animation technology can be used in games, virtual reality and other similar applications.



The company describes its animation technology, IKinema RunTime, as “a versatile run-time animation engine that can pose and animate procedurally human or non-human avatars in run-time during game play. One of the specific features of IKinema RunTime, unlike other solutions, is that it allows full customisation of the rig for run-time animation.”

Apple may leverage IKinema’s technology in future games for Apple Arcade or offer new ways for developers to create immersive virtual reality experiences. We’ll have to wait and see what comes of this acquisition.