Unity 3.0 Adds Groundbreaking New Features and Support for Android, iPad and PlayStation® 3, Becoming the Engine with the Broadest Support on the Market
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - March 8, 2010
Unity Technologies, the provider of the market-leading Unity development platform for 3D interactive content on the Web, PC, Mac, Wii™ and iPhone, introduced today Unity 3.0, the newest release of its platform that will be showcased at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) this week. In addition, Unity Technologies announced today that it will expand its list of supported platforms to include Android, iPad and PlayStation 3. With Xbox® 360 support announced at Unite 2009, today's announcement expands upon Unity's "Author Once, Deploy Anywhere" vision to include all major consoles and the two fastest growing platforms in the mobile space.
"Since our first version in 2005, Unity Technologies has been focused on the democratization of interactive 3D and delivering an impressive list of technological advances making it the technology of choice for more than 100,000 developers today," said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. "We have been driven by innovation and a desire to always offer the best capabilities to developers. Unity 3.0 is built on that same promise and allows our customers to further expand the reach of their games to new platforms and audiences."
New and Enhanced Features in Unity 3.0
Among a host of updates in this release are major updates to Unity's rendering capabilities, its physics features and significant optimizations to its core systems to make targeting multiple platforms easier than ever for developers. For improved performance and fidelity in its rendering, Unity now includes fully integrated licensed technology from Illuminate Labs and Umbra Software. Used in games such as the highly regarded Mirror's Edge, Illuminate Lab's Beast lighting software provides Unity developers with a complete global illumination solution for photorealistic scene lighting. Ensuring exceptional performance for games with large, open scenes and complex geometry, Umbra's occlusion culling software is also fully integrated in Unity 3.0. Both Umbra and Beast are included in Unity Pro at no additional cost.
"Using Unity is such an enjoyable experience that it's sometimes easy to forget what a powerful tool it has become," said Mauricio Longoni, Development and Technology Director at Aquiris. "The team here has been banging on early builds of the new Unity Pro 3.0, and we're very impressed by the early stability and polish of pre-release builds amidst the massive changes and improvements."
Unity Technologies' iPhone product, Unity iPhone, is also getting a number of major improvements for version 3.0 including streaming audio support for smaller build size, Bluetooth multiplayer support, faster in-game GUIs and a very fast 2D sprite engine as well as numerous performance improvements to provide faster frame rates.
New Platform Support
Unity Technologies, which has the most widely licensed engine for iPhone and iPod touch development, has announced support for the new Apple iPad. Game developers and content creators are paying serious attention to this new device and appear excited by its potential.
Unity for Android is the first non-Apple handset to be added to the Unity family allowing developers to reach new audiences on mobile devices. With these combined platforms, Unity developers will be in a position to reach the growing 75 million iPhone / iPod Touch devices as well as the 60,000 Android devices now shipping daily.
"The challenge and opportunity for developers today is ubiquity," said Richard Hilleman, Chief Creative Director at Electronic Arts during his keynote at Unite 2009. "People playing games today want their entertainment on demand and portable, so reaching them on multiple devices and offering experiences that fit their lifestyle is key."
With long-standing support for the Wii and recently announced support for the Xbox 360, today's announcement from Unity Technologies that it will support PlayStation 3 unlocks an additional install base of more than 33 million consoles to Unity developers and completes the company's support for the current generation of consoles.
Offering a single authoring environment for all of its currently supported platforms, Unity offers developers a chance to target a broader install base than any other game engine today.
Pricing and Availability
For version 3.0, Unity Technologies has kept Unity, its entry level product, free for commercial use. Its premier product, Unity Pro, will retain its current price of $1500 per developer seat. Current Unity Pro owners will be able to upgrade to version 3.x for $750.
A final release date is planned for this Summer. Developers can gain first access to beta builds of version 3.0 prior to the final release by pre-ordering Unity Pro 3.0 from the Unity Website at www.unity3d.com. Pre-order customers will also get their Unity Pro 3.x licenses at a substantial discount: $1200 per seat for new licensees and $500 per seat for 2.x upgrades.
Also seeing significant general and platform-specific improvements, Unity iPhone and Unity iPhone Pro will be available for pre-order immediately at similar discounts: $300 per seat for new licensees of Unity iPhone ($100 per seat for 1.x upgrades) and $1200 per seat for new licensees of Unity iPhone Pro ($500 per seat for 1.x upgrades).
To get the current version of the free feature-packed Unity to create games and interactive visualizations for the Web, PC and Mac or to get a free 30 day evaluation of Unity Pro or Unity iPhone, go to https://unity3d.com/unity/download/.
To see where people are taking Unity, go to: https://unity3d.com/gallery/game-list/.
About GDC
GDC is the world's largest professionals-only game industry event taking place March 9-13, 2010 in San Francisco. GDC is the essential forum for learning, inspiration and networking for the creators of computer, console, handheld, mobile and online games. GDC attracts more than 17,000 attendees and is the primary forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry.
Unity Technologies is the Gold Sponsor of the Independent Games Festival and the Platinum Sponsor of the iPhone Summit at GDC 2010 and will be showcasing Unity 3.0 at its booth #1112. Unity Technologies CEO David Helgason is on the GamesBeat Disruptive Innovation panel on Wednesday, March 10th at 2:15pm. For more information, visit www.gdconf.com.