Unity’s game creation software, used by 53% of mobile developers, will make the jump to Windows 8.
The new Windows 8 operating system will launch on October 26th, and some are already unhappy about it. Prominent game industry figures like Markus “Notch” Persson are concerned that the platform is too restrictive for indie developers, while Valve is bringing Steam to Linux in case everything goes downhill. But there are some out there who have good feelings about Windows 8, such as Unity Technologies CEO David Helgason, who announced recently that Unity’s indie-friendly game engine will fully support Windows 8 on both PC and mobile platforms.
“Our mission at Unity has always been to provide solutions for developers to effortlessly bring their work to as many different platforms as possible,” Helgason said. “The Unity community has been asking for access to Windows Phones and have been eagerly anticipating the release of Windows 8. We’re happy to announce that we will support both.”
The announcement may come as a surprise when one considers that Unity wasn’t previously available on Windows phones. While Unity is used by a stunning 53% of mobile developers, Windows 7 phones were too closed to for the game engine to function properly. As the engine becomes an increasingly popular tool for indie developers, making the engine available on more platforms seems to have become a priority for Helgason.
With a little luck, this news might imply that Microsoft doesn’t want Windows 8 to be the operating system that drives away PC developers, independent or otherwise. We’ll have to wait at least another two months to find out for sure, but in the meantime we should expect indie gaming to continue its expansion into mobile environments.
Source: EDGE, via Games Industry International
