Unity: Last News

Unity have announced that there will be changes to its controversial runtime fees following an unabating backlash from game developers, and apologised for sowing resentfulness.“We have heard you. We apologise for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused.

Unity Technologies CEO John Riccitiello, who had held the position for almost a decade, is no longer with the company following the fallout over fee changes for the game engine.James M. Whitehurst is now the interim CEO and president of the company, with Roelof Botha, the lead independent director of Unity’s board, stepping into the role of chairman.Unity is actively seeking a new CEO but Riccitiello “will continue to advise Unity to ensure a smooth transition”.“Unity is well-positioned to continue enhancing its platform, strengthening its community of customers, developers and partners, and focusing on its growth and profitability goals,” Whitehurst said in a press release.In September, Unity unveiled its new runtime fees which would come into effect for customers once their game had overcome certain thresholds for installs and lifetime revenue.However, the response from game developers to the changes was disastrous.

Unity has laid off approximately 200 workers as they “realign some of [their] resources.”Unity is one of the most used game engines in the industry. While Epic Games and its Unreal Engine tend to cater to larger developers, Unity targets the indie market.

Unity has released Enemies, a cinematic demo that showcases what it’s graphics engine is capable of in 2022.Launched today (March 21), Enemies is an incredibly lifelike cinematic demo that demonstrates what can be achieved by the Unity engine.The demo is roughly two minutes long, and follows a woman playing chess and monologuing in a sci-fi environment.Though Enemies is fairly brief, it showcases the progress that’s been made in recreating lifelike humans in digital format. In particular, Enemies makes use of Unity Hair Solution, which includes a Hair System that will launch for users in the second quarter of 2022.On what the tech behind Enemies offers the games industry, Unity has shared that it’s an example of how the company wants non-AAA and indie developers to still be able to create good-looking games despite not having huge budgets.Speaking to NME, creative director Veselin Efremov shared that the demo took roughly 12 people a year and a half of work.

Unity, a popular engine for creating games, has shared that the pandemic has brought “long-lived and sustainable” changes to the games industry, with a record number of people creating and playing games.The Unity Gaming Report 2022 uses data from over 230,000 developers who create games using Unity, and is a comprehensive look at the world’s gaming habits over the last year.In the latest report, Unity claimed that “far from a “pandemic spike” the changes in the games industry appear to be long-lived and sustainable,” and added that “in 2021, the number of people playing games is at far higher levels than they were pre-COVID and the industry has continued to step up to feed the demand”.Unity stated that the number of games made via its engine rose by 93 per cent in 2021, with a 31 per cent bump in new creators.

Balan Wonderworld earlier this year, game director and former head of Sonic Team Yuji Naka has announced that he is now working alone to develop a new game. The news comes via a tweet from Naka celebrating his 56th birthday, after he left Square Enix following the lacklustre release of 3D platformer Balan Wonderworld.He said in the tweet: “Recently I’ve started studying programs again, and I’m making a simple game for smartphones with Unity. It’s not a big deal because it’s made by one person, but programming for making games is fun.