Chart Success for New Releases Underscores the Strength of Unity in De-Risking the Business of Game Creation
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - November 30, 2009
Unity Technologies, the leading provider of the multi-platform game development platform for Web, PC, Mac, Wii™ and iPhone, announced today that 12 percent of the games featured on AppShopper.com’s Top 25 paid for apps* were built with Unity iPhone. Only 12 months since it was first released, Unity iPhone is proving to be the fastest growing game development platform for the iPhone.
Unity-built new releases StarWars®: Trench Run (THQ) and Ravensword: The Fallen King (Chilingo) both became top paid for apps on AppShopper.com within a week of release, joining fellow hit Unity powered titles Skee-Ball, Zombieville USA and Monster Trucks Nitro.
With a plethora of new titles being released on a daily basis the battle for high chart rankings grows ever more fierce with paid for apps competing not only with free apps but also high rates of piracy. Unity developers are finding that built-in anti-piracy technology, a royalty-free license and the affordability of the Unity iPhone Basic for $399 allows them to significantly de-risk their development.
"Game engines are the glue to put together all the components of your game. Unity iPhone has been our special super glue offering a great PhysX engine and solving the hard parts of iPhone / iPod Touch compatibility which have allowed us to focus on the game itself rather than the engine," said Jonathan Czeck, co-founder of Graveck Interactive, developers of Skee-Ball. "Without a doubt, it helped us overcome the many competitors on the App Store as we rose all the way to the # 1 spot of best selling games."
“Using Unity for our future apps after the success of Zombieville seemed like a given. It's proven to be the ideal tool for us and many other developers,” said Noah Bordner, co-founder of Mika Mobile, developers of Zombieville USA. “With each new release the engine grows more feature-rich and optimized - we'd be crazy to try and build another game from scratch!”
Unite 2009 really showed us what big strides we had made during the last year. The crowd was a wonderful cross-section of the community – from industry luminaries to indie developers,” said Helgason. “And the step we took to finally make Unity free was so logical; it remains our mission to take something as advanced as Unity and make it available to everyone.”
"The iPhone is a very exciting platform and a fiercely competitive market. We have seen a great uptake of our product by developers small and large as our product helps quality games be delivered faster on the iPhone and iPod Touch," said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. "We keep seeing an increasing number of Unity authored games, and a good number of them keep popping in the top rankings.”
Toucharcade.com recently hailed Unity as an impressive 3D engine,** underscoring one of the many reasons that a rapidly growing band of developers are adopting it as their platform of choice for iPhone game creation.
AppShopper.com chart positions:- Skee-Ball (1st place for several weeks in a row, still in the top rankings)- Star Wars Trench Run (13th place)- Ravensword: The Fallen King (24th place)- Zombieville USA (47th place)- Monster Trucks Nitro (60th place, continuing to sell well eight months after release).
Additionally, four Unity-built games – Battle Bears, Downhill Bowling, Inkvaders and Skee-Ball – are featured in iLounge’s prestigious Top 100 paid for games for 2009.
Unity powered titles previously achieving other Top 100 Chart positions include Battle Bears; Touch KO; Rasta Monkey; RC Heli: Indoor Racing; Vans SK8: Pool Service; Biplane - Wings of Raccoon; Crazy Snowboard; Monkey Diving; Scarecrow; Realmaze3D; Downhill Bowling; Little Runner; Inkvaders; Castle Warriors; Samurai: Way of the Warrior and Human Body 3D Anatomy.
Unity Technologies just released version 1.5.1 of Unity for iPhone in response to new submission rules from Apple. For more information on Unity for iPhone, visit http://www.unity3d.com. To get the free feature-packed Unity or to get a free 30 day evaluation of Unity Pro to create Web, PC and Mac games, go to https://unity3d.com/unity/download.
* November 20, 2009 AppShopper.com Top 100 (Paid) in Games Chart
** November 17, 2009 TouchArcade.com review: http://toucharcade.com/2009/11/17/ravensword-the-fallen-king-the-review/
