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Report: Game Engine Maker Unity Courting Buyers
According to a new CNET report, Unity, the popular game development platform, has been conducting meetings with prospective buyers.
Citing unnamed sources, CNET reports that "[Unity] is gearing up for a potential sale, having shared presentations with possible acquirers including Google, according to people familiar with the matter. It's also had serious talks with at least one would-be buyer in recent months."
If true, this would cause major waves in the video game industry. Unity has become extremely popular in recent years as a low-cost, easy-to-use development platform that easily scales to a variety of hardware, including mobile. According to the article, three million Unity licenses have been issued, and half of all mobile games are developed with the software platform. Any changes to Unity's business practices could cause potential headaches for a wide variety of developers.
Source: CNET via GamePolitics
Our Take
Unity has been wildly successful - so successful that essentially forced industry giant Epic Games to change its entire business model in regards to licensing Unreal Engine. If Google is one of the suitors (and why wouldn't they be?), it would be likely that things would be remain business as usual. However, there scenarios where Unity is purchased by a game publisher or developer that could make it a less open platform.
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