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Sony to offer Unity for Playstation to all licensed developers for free

D

duckroll

Member
http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/140917_e.html

Tokyo, September 17, 2014 – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) and Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity multi-platform engine and development tools, having originally entered into a strategic partnership in March, 2013 to provide Unity for PlayStation®, today announced that they have extended and strengthened that strategic partnership to offer Unity Pro for PlayStation® for PlayStation®4, PlayStation®3 and PlayStation®Vita at no additional cost to all PlayStation licensed developers.

The strengthened partnership demonstrates Sony Computer Entertainment’s commitment to providing the richest variety of gaming experiences for platform owners by making Unity’s PlayStation platform deployment tools, already released and being used by many developers, more easily accessible and free of licensing fees. The extended relationship increases SCE’s support for the activities of independent developers and deepens the cooperation with Unity in order to enhance performance and provide more features to meet the needs of experienced PlayStation developers.

"We are very happy to begin offering Unity for our PlayStation® platforms at no additional cost to developers," said Teiji Yutaka, Senior Vice President, Division Deputy President, R&D Division of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "Some of the most exciting and high quality games are being created in the vibrant indie community. We’re happy to help ensure all developers have the same opportunities to create wonderful new experiences for our powerful PlayStation platforms."

"We’re already seeing amazing Unity-authored games coming out, as well as many more that are in production, for all of the PlayStation platforms," said David Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies. "This is an exciting step to make this clear and easy, and to guarantee that developers using Unity have a fantastic opportunity to participate in the PlayStation® developer community."

Many Unity-authored games are already released or in development such as Assault Android Cactus, BroForce, CounterSpy, DEEMO, Galak-Z, Night in the Woods, Oddworld: New‘N’ Tasty, Shiftlings, Starwhal: Just the Tip, The Golf Club, and TorqueL. As evidenced by this small fraction of Unity-authored titles, Unity’s adaptability and flexibility make the development platform ideal for an incredibly wide range of game styles and art. For a bigger list of released and in-development Unity-authored titles, visit Unity’s website gallery.

Developers interested in creating games for PlayStation platforms can reach out to their PlayStation representative to discuss becoming an approved PlayStation developer and receiving specialized PlayStation ready versions of the Unity Pro development engine and editor.
Click to expand...
 
R

RdN

Member
Great news for indie developers. Sony was the only one lagging in this area, good to see them catching up.
 
G

GroundCombo

Member
Wow, that's awesome. I wonder how many game submissions they're getting and how many they're turning down. PSN isn't exactly swamped with indie Unity games yet, but no doubt they will face the App Store / Early Access situation as development gets easier.
 
C

coolasj19

Why are you reading my tag instead of the title of my post?
GroundCombo said:
Wow, that's awesome. I wonder how many game submissions they're getting and how many they're turning down. PSN isn't exactly swamped with indie Unity games yet, but no doubt they will face the App Store / Early Access situation as development gets easier.
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Fees and actually passing stuff like QA are a decent enough deterrent. Plus, they have full rights to turn down any product from reaching PSN. Legit big news. ALL THE VITA PORTS !!
 
P

Paz

Member
desu said:
1500$ for full licence, or 75$ monthly.

Great news though!
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Hahahahahaha no.

That's Unity PC pricing which remains as-is, consoles were/are ENTIRELY different. Though Sony's been making arrangements for PS devs for some time now, they are pretty good about helping people put good content on their platforms.
 
H

HolyBaikal

Banned
I'm actually hoping this leads to more games on the PC. Unity makes it easy to port between any platform it supports. The PC is getting lots of Android games because it's easy to port Android games using Unity to the PC.

Maybe the same could happen for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 if lots of their games use Unity. And I'm happy for PlayStation fans, too. Because using Unity means having multiplatform games is easier for everyone.

Though I guess I'm mostly excited about the idea of more games on the PC. Hehe.
 
M

mangochutney

Member
Panajev2001a said:
PS Vita developers already had Unity for free, unless they needed Unity Pro:

http://blogs.unity3d.com/2014/06/20/unity-for-playstationmobile-full-release/

Of course... Windows only, SCE's tools do not support Mac... This really helped them gain traction with Android developers and iOS ones with PlayStation Mobile...
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And also allowed have-a-go developers to try it out and get a game running on your own Vita.

I'm guessing this won't allow any random sole to just sign up unlike PSM.
 
CamHostage

CamHostage

Member
Good times.

Anybody working in Unity tried their projects on Unity? It looks like it runs 2D just fine in the 2D Platformer demo and they've got Angry Bots (a common 3D Unity demo included in the asset package) running with effects and such.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5AuuvnwQ0I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOWif2BTqeI

Those are pretty generic demos though, I'm not sure how well it holds up when really put to work? (I know the Assault Android Cactus team seems to have been biting its nails over the Vita version but they say they should be able to pull it off and that game is bananas.) How does the engine hold up under pressure? Any chance of a comparison to UE3 on Vita (which seemed to be a total nonstarter as an engine on the portable, lots of complaints and trouble getting games already in the engine over to Vita, and none of even the viable UE mobile stuff crossed over.) Are we going to be rewarded for pinning all our hopes on Unity for international Vita productions?
 
M

midramble

Pizza, Bourbon, and Thanos
what will the IP percentage be though? Lowering the initial cost to zilch is awesome but if they still want to take %25-%35 of gross.... that's still where it hurts. UE4's new license has been pretty damn great.
 
N

Nosgoroth

Member
midramble said:
what will the IP percentage be though? Lowering the initial cost to zilch is awesome but if they still want to take %25-%35 of gross.... that's still where it hurts. UE4's new license has been pretty damn great.
Click to expand...


I thought Unity didn't do this at all.
 
M

midramble

Pizza, Bourbon, and Thanos
Nosgoroth said:
I thought Unity didn't do this at all.
Click to expand...

Unity itself doesn't, but I'm wondering if this will change Sony's publishing royalties for self-publish.

For me UE4 is still an amazing deal now that they significantly lowered the initial price, dropped the publishing royalties to %5, and offer full source code in a VS solution with multi-platform build configs.

I'll be keeping an eye on this for a while because I've been a pretty big fan of Unity, and I may switch back. All this pricing model shifting has been directing my decisions a lot as of late.
 
2

2+2=5

The Amiga Brotherhood
Why everyone treats this news as it's a Vita thing? Vita already has Unity for free thanks to PSM, so it's more a PS4 thing imo.
 
D

duckroll

Member
2+2=5 said:
Why everyone treats this news as it's a Vita thing? Vita already has Unity for free thanks to PSM, so it's more a PS4 thing imo.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's the same thing. Unity for Playstation Mobile was a means for developers to publish to Vita without additional cost, but it didn't include Unity Pro as a development suite. This new agreement provides Unity Pro for all Playstation platforms for free to any licensed Playstation developer.
 
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