Unity Licenses Free for ID@Xbox Developers

[roseofbattle]

Unity Licenses Free for ID@Xbox Developers

Microsoft calls its offer of free Unity licenses a "level playing field for all developers."

Unity, a cross-platform game engine, is a big part of games today. For small independent developers with little money, the cost to buy a license can be out of one's budget. Microsoft had debated on how to address this problem for its ID@Xbox program, the company's independent developer self-publishing program. Coming to a decision, the company announced today all members of the ID@Xbox program will receive the Unity add-on for Xbox One for free.

"We talked internally at ID@Xbox about ways we could help developers for Xbox One," ID@Xbox director Chris Charla said in a statement. "Many developers we talk to are using Unity today... We thought about paying for some developers' Unity licenses but the more we talked about it, the more we felt paying for some developers' licenses and not others just didn't feel right. To us, ID@Xbox is about providing a level playing field for all developers."

The level playing field will allow for developers of different sizes, different locations, and varying budgets will have "the same shot to realize their vision on Xbox One."

The Unity add-on to Xbox One will be available next year, and it will include Kinect support, SmartGlass integration and the impulse triggers of the Xbox One's controller.

Dan Teasdale of independent studio No Goblin said in the same statement, "ID@Xbox has been great about lowering the bar to entry for smaller developers like No Goblin. Free Unity licenses are another big step towards making Xbox One a no-brainer for independent developers like us."

Sony and Nintendo are working on similar indie development support for their consoles. All three are late to the independent game, but it's better late than never.

Source: Xbox [http://news.xbox.com/2013/11/xbox-one-unity-id]

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[Baldr]

This step is huge in getting independent developers on Xbox One. There are some draw backs to Unity, but most indies like unity, it a very easy engine to develop on.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Good move by MS. Alongside the whole "Xbox One can be a devkit too!" thing, it seems a stark turnaround from the "Xbox Hates Indies!" view that was widely held at the beginning.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Why do i sense that some people got a visit from the three ghosts of christmas?

Still, its good news. But who are No Goblin? I could easily just google it, but am getting suspicious that google does not appreciate my curiosities anymore and may just be monitoring everything i do for their own dark ends of advertisement

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Too bad they couldn't secure the Unreal Engine. THAT would have been awesome. Only problem with that though is that UE isn't very user-friendly. They might have changed that with UE4 though.

 

[JarinArenos]

I can't grump at MS about this one; it's a positive move. Good for them.

That being said... it's a pity that all these independent devs won't be able to take advantage of the XB1's hardware, Unity being stubbornly single-threaded and software-locked for physics.

 

[josemlopes]

Too bad they couldn't secure the Unreal Engine. THAT would have been awesome. Only problem with that though is that UE isn't very user-friendly. They might have changed that with UE4 though.

I think that is what UE4 main selling point seems to be, not user-friendly enough that anyone can just pick it up but still a lot more friendly then the previous versions. It doesnt seem to be the best looker (while other engines can look more realistic with better lighting the UE4 still looks very artificial from what they have shown) but it looks like its the most versatile.

Looking forward to see developers start using it and how much impact it has on budgets (another thing the engine seems aimed at is making work faster and easier, and in games time is money).