• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Unity and Nintendo partner to bring Unity Engine to Wii U in 2013

Pocks

Member
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/19/unity-nintendo-partnership/#continued
Unity Engine is best known for supporting mobile and digital titles, but Unity Technologies CEO David Helgason sees his company's engine as more flexible than that. Nintendo apparently does as well, partnering with Unity on a worldwide licensing agreement that offers first- and third-party Pro level engine access to Wii U developers. The partnership also grandfathers in the existing 1.2 million Unity licensees to the Wii U platform, which Helgason tells us is, "extremely easy" to port to -- Unity's calling the partnership an "excellent opportunity" to port existing Unity games from "thousands of studios currently developing mobile and social games." The partnership's effects aren't immediate, however, as Unity Engine's Wii U support won't go live until 2013, which tells us that we won't see any fruit from the collaboration until some point in 2013 at the earliest.

When pushed, Helgason wouldn't out any potential games headed to the Wii U via Unity, nor would he offer up names of studios interested in working with Nintendo's next console. It's not hard to imagine big Unity games like Slender and Rochard ending up ported to the Wii U, of course, but it sounds like we'll have to wait a bit longer before we hear which games will benefit from the partnership first.

Visit the link for the full press release.

(m/l)ock if old, did a search and didn't see anything.
 

antonz

Member
Its another option. Unity itself isn't too bad to work with. Better stuff out there for sure but as mentioned its probably going to be really good for Eshop games etc
 

Pocks

Member
Its another option. Unity itself isn't too bad to work with. Better stuff out there for sure but as mentioned its probably going to be really good for Eshop games etc

Yeah, I see it as Nintendo at least attempting to beef up the quantity of eShop titles. Good on 'em, cause their reputation with the Wii was pretty salty.
 

jaz013

Banned
El Chavo U!!! XD

But seriously, I hope they tweak the engine for the system. The Wii version on Unity was cumbersome and a pain to work with (maybe getting the source code could help to improve performance and functionality, but I didn't get to know).
 

Dascu

Member
Yeah, this could be a great way for indie devs to publish a game on the eShop.


Edit: Dudebro II isn't using Unity Engine anymore, guys. It's XNA now.
 

stuminus3

Member
That's a pretty big deal for the tech, but doesn't this require Nintendo to change how they do business for it to bear any fruit from the hundreds of indies that shine using Unity on other platforms?
 

Sheroking

Member
That's a pretty big deal for the tech, but doesn't this require Nintendo to change how they do business for it to bear any fruit from the hundreds of indies that shine using Unity on other platforms?

What do you mean?

Near as we can tell, Nintendo has lifted most of it's restrictions and is offering a bigger slice to indie developers on the Wii U eShop.
 

Boerseun

Banned
This could potentially be great news for indie devs wanting to port their work to Wii U. And potentially bad news for the makers of OUYA, since much of that catalogue will undoubtedly consist of Unity-engined titles.
 

AzaK

Member
This is great news. Unity is a pretty solid engine (I have the entry level license) and priced pretty well I think, which helps the smaller devs in the end.

Just another good feather in the cap.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
This really doesn't mean anything until Nintendo does anything about their DD solutions, which they've yet to detail. I wonder where they will draw the line for quality and content, and if they'll learn from MS and Sony's forays into DD this past gen (they haven't for hard drive space, so that's not a good look).
 
This really doesn't mean anything until Nintendo does anything about their DD solutions, which they've yet to detail. I wonder where they will draw the line for quality and content, and if they'll learn from MS and Sony's forays into DD this past gen (they haven't for hard drive space, so that's not a good look).
Being that I can use a non-proprietary storage solution, they have most certainly learned.
 
That WiiU, so hot right now.

So hot that people forget that Wii also supported Unity?

hemOb.png
 

antonz

Member
This really doesn't mean anything until Nintendo does anything about their DD solutions, which they've yet to detail. I wonder where they will draw the line for quality and content, and if they'll learn from MS and Sony's forays into DD this past gen (they haven't for hard drive space, so that's not a good look).

Big thing and its something Nintendo is super aggressive on this console is they are becoming Mass Licensee for all these engines etc. They are buying access for everyone who develops
 

Sentenza

Member
CTRL+F "Wii U" -> A remarkable average of FIVE threads for page.

Oh God, I never trusted you, but please make it stop.
 
This is interesting. A good way to bring people in.
With Nintendo licensed as well, it will be interesting to see if they look to help Indie's too by producing their own extensions based on some of their own ideas/processes.

CTRL+F "Wii U" -> A remarkable average of FIVE threads for page.

Oh God, I never trusted you, but please make it stop.

Am waiting for the first ban for these comments, if people want to post a thread and then others want to talk in it - whats the problem? Unless people are spamming theres no issue, and this is news worthy of its own discussion as oppose to de-railing other threads.

Lots of playstation threads too.
 

antonz

Member
What engine is easier to use than unity? I've been looking but couldn't find anything.

For ease of use Unity is very good. I was speaking more to just base resources and such being better in others. I had to crash course unity pretty hard for a project I was going to be working on then got shifted to a different team. Fun engine to tinker with and easy to create games.

If Nintendo opens up the indie approval section more to allow for easier access I could see a huge explosion in eshop production.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Big thing and its something Nintendo is super aggressive on this console is they are becoming Mass Licensee for all these engines etc. They are buying access for everyone who develops
Sounds great in concept, but I've yet to be convinced really. For all we know they're going to slap 100mb limits on everything, I think that there are just way too many unknown factors right not to have faith for indie success and prosperity on the console.
 
Is Nintendo's strategy here to get as many existing unity games ported to Wii U e-Shop, while giving those developers an easy option for future games as well? If so, seems like a good idea to make sure the e-Shop is packed full of those types of games.
 

Vic

Please help me with my bad english
Sounds great in concept, but I've yet to be convinced really. For all we know they're going to slap 100mb limits on everything, I think that there are just way too many unknown factors right not to have faith for indie success and prosperity on the console.
To my knownledge, the 3DS eShop doesn't have a size limit. Then the Wii U shouldn't either.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
To my knownledge, the 3DS eShop doesn't have a size limit. Then the Wii U shouldn't either.
This is good to hear. I figured they may try to do what the 360 did early on in it's life with the limited HDD space in their premium SKU.

I guess Nintendo embracing expandable memory on both platforms is probably why it's like that too.
 

lettermassing

Neo Member
I haven't played too many Unity Engine games. What does this mean?

Unity is an engine that simplifies a lot of the things that go into making a game, it's pretty powerful for independent developers. It still requires programming knowledge etc but it generally makes things easier and quicker to do.
 
Top Bottom