Unity Technologies Celebrates Increase of 500,000 Users One Year After the Announcement of New and Innovative Democratization Initiatives
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Nov 29, 2011 - Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity development platform for games and interactive 3D on the web, iOS, Android, consoles and beyond, today announced that Unity has more than 750,000 registered developers. 200,000, 26% of all registered developers, remain active on a monthly basis. The number of Unity Web Player installs doubled over the last year with 40 million in November of 2010 and more than 80 million now.
"We're amazed at how rapidly Unity continues to grow in popularity globally," said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. "The continuing growth of the platform demonstrates that when provided with excellent tools, developers will embrace them in numbers that surpass anything anyone imagined."
This announcement comes amid the one year anniversary of the inception of two bold democratization initiatives: the Asset Store digital content marketplace and Union distribution service. Both initiatives have seen huge growth in their first year paralleling the success of Unity as it approaches the release of Unity 3.5.
Unity Asset Store is Booming
Unity Technologies launched the Unity Asset Store during Unite 10 to give developers access to a range of high-quality royalty-free assets right inside the Unity Editor, also giving asset creators a new avenue to make money. Since the opening a year ago, both facets of the Asset Store's purpose have proven highly successful.
Not only have the quality and quantity of assets improved through the year, the money made by creators has increased dramatically as well. When the Asset Store opened last year, it housed 64 packages for sale. Today 50,000 registered users can find 2,200 packages on the Asset Store, providing developers with time and money-saving options ranging from complex add-ons down to simple art assets. In the opening month the top vendors were grossing $2,500 a month while the latest sales numbers show a huge increase to more than $10,000 a month.
"The Asset Store has proven to be an fantastic way for developers to gain access to benefits that only the largest studios used to have," said Nicholas Francis, Chief Creative Officer at Unity Technologies. "I think this is an awesome way for small developers to be able to focus on what they do best and to get work from other creators that complements their skills."
Union Opens New Doors of Distribution for Developers
The Union business unit was created as a way to help Unity developers publish their mind-blowing creations on exciting new platforms. Many Union developers have already seen their games available for sale on devices such as the Xperia Play Smartphone, the Roku 2 set-top box, the Nokia N9 and RIM Playbook with zero extra development cost. Union will be adding more games to these existing platforms and is currently in negotiations with many new partners to bring Unity-authored content to more mobile, set-top and smart TV platforms in the near future.
"There are a number of new publishing platforms looking for high-quality games to present to their customers," continued Helgason. "With Union, Unity Technologies is providing a risk-free opportunity for developers to find those platforms, make more money and reach new audiences. And these innovative strategies are only the beginning of a long-term plan to radically democratize creativity."
About Unity Technologies
Unity Technologies is the creator of Unity, an intuitive and flexible development platform used to make wildly creative and intelligently interactive 3D and 2D content. The "author once, deploy everywhere" capability ensures developers can publish to all of the most popular platforms. Unity Technologies boasts a thriving community of 750,000 registered developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists. Unity Technologies aggressively re-invests in its award-winning 3D development tools and democratization initiatives, such as the Asset Store digital content marketplace and Union game distribution service, in order to remain at the forefront of innovation. Unity Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Japan and Korea. For more information, visit: http://unity3d.com.
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