GDC 2015 (Game Developers Conference) is well underway, and Unity took the opportunity to launch its latest major version at the event. Unity 5 was unveiled, which provides new tools to produce stronger visuals, in addition to enhanced analytics and features along with an ongoing free version for those learning to make games. The key point, for Wii U eShop fans, is that Nintendo's system was listed as a compatible platform along with 20 others, as you can see in the image above.
The Unity engine, and Nintendo's support for it - providing developers with a free Unity license to release games on the Wii U - has played a vital role in boosting the system's eShop library. A large number of games on the store utilise Unity, including a variety of the best downloads currently on offer.
You can see some GDC trailers showing off Unity 5 below.
It's unsurprising, too, that the 3DS is once again missing as a compatible platform with Unity - the previous iterations weren't supported either, and though Nintendo's expressed an interest in making it happen, it's likely that the portable's infrastructure and the respective priorities of Nintendo and Unity make it a longshot at best.
Nevertheless, it's pleasing that developers utilising Unity 5 will have the option to port their games to Wii U. The eShop library would be a far less diverse place without it.
Thanks to all that sent this in.
Comments 45
I'm learning Unity right now.
@Inkling Make us all a baseball game for WiiU please.
Considering previous Unity version's had WiiU support, anyone want to explain why this is news? Everyone is reporting it, but seems more of a "Duh" thing.
@XCWarrior I'll see what I can do
@XCWarrior Sometimes new software etc don't support all platforms that were featured before - just reporting some positive news, but clearly I can't win either way.
I'm learning C# with monodevelop and "Unity". I'll learn more this weekend in fact. I'm writing a novel based off my game. Anyway, I wish I can PM here. I want to ask inkling something without getting way off-topic,
I sorta knew this already so why are you posting this? I thought the world revolved around me, dammit. Thomas I am so disappoint.
Now if only they made it more affordable...
@BLPs Yup. I've been learning Unity by making a simple Pong game. It takes longer than you'd expect.
My aim is to have a 3D Platformer made with Unity, and if it sold well, I'd release it on Wii U as well
@BLPs
I think there are some non-publishing features you have to pay for if you want to use them.
I need to free up some HD space and go through some of the tutorials I recently acquired.
@TheLordAndrew
You can use it for free.
Still no 3DS support? Bah! At any rate, at least Unity 5 is finally out.
I wish I could afford all the licenses at the end when I'd actually want to release something using this.
I wish I had the time and patience to start again from scratch and actually learn to use something like this
That's great news. Hoping that existing games such as Armillo will get updates to use the new engine.
@Kirk
Well, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo give away the Xbox One, Playstation, and Wii U licenses for free to authorized developers. And for PC, you tend not to have to pay for much.
-sits on buisness chair and turns around with my fingers like mr.burns- Excellent! unity you have my attention!
@ThomasBW84 some people are on here can be impossible to please, always complaining or making unnecessary snarky comments... the article was positive news to me and I appreciated it, keep up the good work
Awesome can't wait to see the possibilities on Wii U. I do hope we see these on the console, all even the mobile games look gorgeous. I'll say that game in the Third video is the best
I love how it can work on every platfrom! I wish every graphics engine was like that.
@XCWarrior - Considering EAs unprecedented support, and Ubis better late then never approach (except for the 2 Assassins Creed games which were never even though Wii U got earlier games) Id say anything 3rd party coming to Wii U is news.
And besides, if this wasnt posted, at least 8 people in other threads would be asking why NL wasnt covering this.
I was actually going to ask why Unreal 4 being free was NOT covered, but then I remembered it works on every platform not owned by Nintendo. But I WAS going to ask
Nice, should make development easier for Wii U indies.
And this is news because this is an entirely new version.
Just because it has support for an older version doesn't mean it'll have support for a new version. Especially considering the Wii U is technologically behind the other two home consoles, PC, and, as of last year, mobile and that they showed off many modern graphics effects with Unity 5..
Nice to see that Unity continues to support Vita, Wii U, PS3 and Xbox 360 though.
@BLPs from the dev conferences ive watched and personal experience, most games barely get off the concept phase. Many more are pruned out during the prototyping as well So don't feel alone in this
@Quorthon
As far as I'm aware there's a fee for every separate platform you want to put the game on if you're using Unity and most over game development tools/software.
On game maker it's about a hundred or more quid for each different platform, be it Mac, iOS, HTML5, Android etc, and I think it's even more with Unity although I haven't looked recently to be honest.
Regardless, I know it's not actually as "free" at it all sounds.
Some good news for a change.
@Kirk
Still, once you start selling the games you make you should be able to claim the cost of the licensing fees back as a business expense. Along with electricity, PCs, home office equipment and more.
@kirk
HTML5, Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android are all free to publish for as far as Unity is concerned. There is a required "Unity" splash screen to come up. The quote on the site is "Deployment to all platforms included with the Personal Edition splash screen."
After one makes over $100,000 a company needs to use the pro version which is either $75 a month or $1500 flat with additional platforms also costing extra (and it adds up fast).
This is part of a big change with Unity 5. The old model had the free version gimped on some game engine features and that has all gone away. Instead, there are new extra subscription based services that are bundled into the pro version but can be used separately if you want with the free version (analytics, team license, profiling). All the game engine capabilities are the same for the personal (free) edition and pro edition now, though.
It's a really nice change.
iOS and Android publishing has been free for awhile now. I published an iOS game on the App Store with the free version of Unity over a year ago. It's true that there was a time you had to pay for the ability to deploy to iOS.
When comparing pricing models with Unreal Engine, the big difference is in royalties. Unity never gets any, Unreal requires a percentage. Both engines are now only getting the big money from companies that are successful. Unity through subscription or purchases of the software, Unreal through royalties.
There are plenty of other differences: Unreal doesn't support Wii U or Windows Store (just Windows Desktop), for instance. Unreal gives you access to the source code, etc.
@XCWarrior it's good to stay updated when it comes to 3rd party software. Some (like myself) probably didn't know it exists until now. This engine presents new possibilities
Still no Linux version....
@Inkling Wha- huh? I didn't even notice the silver badge thing next to your name. Are you a mod now? O.o
@Superstick Yeah. I'm a new mod, alongside Jazzer94, Jenraux, munchakoopas, Amiibo, MorphMarron and Shane904.
@Monado_III Second last square, top row.
@aaronsullivan
Hmmm, interesting...
Then I really should probably start giving Unity a chance because it's a lot more versatile than Game Maker and if it really is free, until you make a decent amount of money, then it's all good as far as I can tell.
I just really don't want to have to start from scratch again and take ages to learn something new. I'm a real slow learner lol
@shaneoh
In 3 years I've made less than £400 from now 7 different games across both Android and iOS...and it's costing me roughly £100 a year for Apple's developer license (as I recall), money each year to keep my website domains going and it also cost me a hundred or so quid for EACH module on Game Maker Studio (of which I use about 3), a few hundred pounds to register my company Trademark...So all in all I've made a loss of about a grand so far...
It's all fine and dandy if you can actually make money but what I've found, and this is the case with my mate too so I'm not alone in this, is that is nigh-on impossible to make enough sales to actually make any money these days on the likes of the App Store and Google Play store because of how saturated these platforms are
Still; I have to be doing something wrong because £400 with 7 games across two billion selling platforms in the span of 3 years is totally and utterly absurd. I just ended up giving my games away for free because there's no point in even charging...and STILL, even giving my games away free and having zero ads and zero micro-transactions (so they really are just pure gifts to consumers with no hassles or downside on their part whatsoever), I've had less than five, that's FIVE (F...I...V...E), downloads of each of my two newest games in the last few weeks (on Android) and virtually all of those were just my mates (which means roughly ZERO actual downloads) and under 50 on iOS.
It's a bit of a joke really, a terrible unfunny joke, and kinda disheartening to be honest.
@mjc0961
You're not wrong.
The problem for me is that if I develop for pc/console then I obviously don't even have the mobile platforms as an option, unless I want to shoehorn proper controls onto touchscreen devices (something I hate), and if I develop for pc/console it's going to be a LOT LOT harder trying to create a game that even comes close to the level expected on those platforms, by both the gamers and myself, as well as probably costing a lot of money once it comes to publishing on all those platforms etc.
To be honest; money is the real problem as I see it (along with lack of resources, talented artists and programmers etc, which largely comes down to a money issue again). With some money I'd surely be releasing full blown console and PC games as I type.
I'm stuck in a loop because I'm trying to make enough money on the simpler mobile platforms to some day be able to afford to make bigger and better games on proper gaming platforms, as I see it, but I'm not actually making any money at all on mobile so I'm basically going nowhere...
Money; the source of almost all the problems [certainly most of mine for sure] in this frikin world!
Wouldn't it be nice if I could just make the games I love but not actually have to worry about the cost or care about making money; just enjoy the satisfaction of having people playing and hopefully loving my games, but that's not the real world because being totally skint isn't the source to any kind of satisfaction and happiness when in reality everything you spend a lot time and resources creating in this world kinda depends on have some flow of cash coming in to really appreciate and enjoy it fully; else you're always on the verge of poverty and that's not happiness either
@BLPs The full engine is either 75$ PM forever or 1500$ outright. You'll pay extra 75$ PM or 1500$ for either full iOS tools or full Android tools. Then Unreal 4 came along at 20$ PM and a small royalty fee for everything. Sadly Wii U isn't supported from what I hear.
@Kage_88 You can produce for Linux, but you can't use Unity on Linux.
@TheLordAndrew
It depends on what you mean by "the full engine". Every feature of the running game engine is now available in the personal edition. Everything. You can publish to all platforms without additional charges or royalty payments. The one caveat is that you need to include the "made with Unity" splash screen. (And of course Unity has no control over things like the Developer Program from Apple which is $99/year for iOS for example, or getting licesensed or getting access to last mile development kits from console makers, etc.)
You will only need to pay the prices you listed if your company makes $100,000 or more. They will still not take any percentage of your revenue whether you make $100,000 or $50 billion the cost of the software and services remain the same.
There are a bunch of other services that are not related to the performance or features of the engine itself that are available a la carte to personal edition users if they want, (Some at $25/m) but for smaller indies especially they aren't at all necessary to publish a complete game.
@Kirk
I hear you on that.
Is it any version of Unity compatible with 3ds?
No?
I don't wonder anymore why there are so few games making at time on 3ds.
And again. You blocked hombrew "dear" Nintendo, giving people less choices to try program something on your stuff.
@AVahne Don't be easily fooled - mobile isn't up to last gen standard by a long shot my friend.
The 'best' looking mobile games have clean simple textures, all faked effects, PS1 style AI and due to running on small touch screens mobile games hide alot of their shortcomings and I nice hi res screen helps out no end.
I seem to remember that the best looking/most demanding console port to mobile - TRINE 2 was missing alot of the more demanding effects running on Nvidia's top hardware - as we all know the Wii U version featured all highest settings of the PC version.
@liveswired
I'm not fooled. I pay close attention to new developments in the mobile space, so I'm not naive. I meant what I said and stand by it.
@Kirk
Yeah I personally wouldn't touch mobiles, because unless you've got the next fad (which won't likely happen if you haven't got the money to saturate the market with advertisements) then you are going to have a hard time being recognized.
You should be able to claim the cost of license fees and the like back at tax time, even if you are making a loss. Might be worth talking to your tax person about, hopefully you can get something back.
I'm looking forward to one of the indie developers make a new game powered by Unity Engine 5 on Wii U. Possibility of a brighter future for Nintendo's first HD system.
@shaneoh
I'll have a wee look into it.
Cheers.
@AVahne ..Don't we all? I'm talking technology on the market now - I'm not considering future tech which is in development or space age tech that is far too expensive to be utilized in commercial products within the next few years.
The NVIDIA X1 is still a generation to go before it is on a level footing with the XBOX360. In my home we have an Xperia Z2 which is often sees game time through MHL on my 1080p 60" Pioneer KRP 600 and an iPad Air which also sees gaming time on the big screen - my point is that neither of these high end products have games with graphics that actually match the graphical standard of some of the top AAA Wii U titles - the upscaling process is fairly harsh on tablet games - they bring up all the visual issues that you don't notice on a small screen - most if not pretty much all of the tech pushing mobile games on iPad and these top devices don't run at their screens native resolutions, in fact far below it - often 600p with questionable framerate.
Other things you notice about these mobile titles is the incredibly basic texturing, faked lighting, short draw distances, terrible AI - I could go on.
I'm not being down on mobile games, I'm being realistic here - NVIDIA have also claimed to have last gen beating performance since the first TEGRA and that is yet to be proven true.
Made up 'theoretical' facts and figures from 'tech' companies are never to be believed and to be treated with a pinch of salt - open your eyes to the truth my friend. Your naivety is in believing all the PR lies these companies throw out and their paid for reviews/previews/controlled trials only to be proven wrong - All the time in REAL WORLD performance.
@liveswired
Except I've gone to a major technology conference as a student.
I've seen some of this tech myself. It does these companies absolutely no good to make numbers up. They can't make money that way trying to sell tech to manufacturers. There's great improvement in mobile chips every year. Benchmarks and tech demos show that off easily. You may want to go off real world performance to make your judgement, which would make prefect sense, but you're not looking at the full picture.
Just because tech has gotten better doesn't mean that the games themselves automatically start better right away. Mobile tech improves at such a rate that devs have a hard time keeping up themselves. Especially when the bigger leaps are made such as with GPUs gaining support for OpenGLES 3.1 and DX11, CPUs going to 64 bit, and even more RAM being supported.
Then there's the time constraints and budget. Not many devs will put a lot of money and time toward a mobile game.
And then, there's the issue of older devices. Very little developers will cut off a huge portion of their potential sales audiences by making a game that takes advantage of only the latest hardware. Too many people still own weaker hardware. The only developers who do that are those paid by another company in order to do that, like the ones who work with NVIDIA to bring Half Life 2, Strike Suit Zero, and Crysis 3 to the various SHIELD devices. And even then, they're not going to divert too many resources from projects that cater to their main audiences; the ones that make them more money.
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