Unity Technologies
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Unity Technologies ApS is a video game development company, which is best known for the development of Unity, a licensed game engine. It was founded in Denmark in 2004 as Over the Edge I/S, and became Unity Technologies ApS in 2006.
History
Unity Technologies was founded on 2 August 2004 by David Helgason (CEO), Nicholas Francis (CCO), and Joachim Ante (CTO) in Copenhagen, Denmark after their first game, GooBall, failed to gain success. The three recognized the value in engine and tools development and set out to create an engine developed in-house that any and all could use for an affordable price. Unity Technologies has received funding from the likes of Sequoia Capital, WestSummit Capital, and iGlobe Partners.[1]
The company's focus is to "democratize game development" and make development of 2D and 3D interactive content as accessible as possible to as many people around the world as possible.[1] In 2008, with the rise of the iPhone, Unity was one of the first engine developers to begin supporting the platform in full. Unity now supports 24 platforms, including Oculus Rift, PlayStation 4 and Linux.[2]
In 2010, IBM started exploring Unity 3D based browser plug-ins, as a way to access 3D virtual worlds from within a Web browser.
In April 2012, Unity reportedly had 1 million registered developers, 300,000 of which used Unity on a regular monthly basis.[3] In April 2015, the number of reported registered developers reached 4.5 million, with 1 million monthly active users.[4] 47% of all mobile game developers use Unity.[5]
On 10 November 2010, the Unity Asset Store launched as an online marketplace for Unity users to sell project assets (artwork, code systems, audio, etc.) to each other.[6] By April 2014, it had 600,000 registered users who downloaded about 500,000 assets per month. According to some estimates, this has saved game developers about $1 billion in the previous year.[7]
Unity acquired Applifier, a Helsinki-based mobile service provider, in March 2014. Applifier's Everyplay, the game replay sharing and community service, became Unity Everyplay. The acquisition also meant that Applifier's mobile video ad network, GameAds, became Unity Ads.[8]
Two more acquisitions followed later in 2014: Playnomics, a data analysis platform for developers (now Unity Analytics), and Tsugi, who has been working on a continuous integration service, now known as Unity Cloud Build.[9][10]
In October 2014, Helgason announced in a blog post that he would be stepping down as CEO with John Riccitiello, EA's former CEO, replacing him. Helgason will remain in the company as Executive Vice President.[11][12]
Unity acquired SilkCloud, a Shanghai-based ecommerce developer, in August 2015. SilkCloud is working on infrastructure for Unity's web based services.[13]
Unity held Vision Summit 2016 in February 2016, a VR/AR conference with the intent of "furthering the knowledge base of anyone developing virtual and/or augmented reality content".[14] At the event, Unity announced its partnership with Steam VR and Google Cardboard. The company's VR/AR division, Unity Labs,[15] was also announced alongside the in-VR scene editor.
At GDC 16, Unity announced two new product lines: Unity Certification to facilitate developers in demonstrating their skill and knowledge within Unity; and Unity Collaborate which allows multiple people to access the same Unity project remotely.[16]
On 19 April 2018, Unity Technologies announced on their forum that they would be shutting down Unity Everyplay on 1 October 2018. It was revealed that a lack of funds and a low video upload rate was the cause of the shutdown.[17] Users of Unity Everyplay were notified of the shutdown on 6 June 2018.[18]
References
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