unity

Unity and IronSource’s $4.4B merger is now complete • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 7, 2022Posted in Apps, Gaming, IronSource, unityNo Comments

Unity‘s proposed merger with IronSource has formally concluded, with the two companies coming together to create an end-to-end platform for developers to build and monetize games. Unity, which is best known for its eponymous general purpose game engine, and IronSource, an adtech company that serves developers with tools for integrating ads, cross-channel marketing, and more, first announced plans to join forces in a $4.4 billion all-stock deal back in July. The two publicly-traded companies had seen their stocks fall by around 75% and 50% respectively through 2022, and their decision to merge was driven somewhat by the economic downturn, but also — as at least one analyst pointed out — by Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework which rolled out last year. Both Unity and IronSource rely on developers buying advertising to garner new users, and ATT created friction on that front, so by pooling their collective resources, this goes some way toward addressing their respective declines. “The driving force behind this industry-changing merger is to create more value for developers across the entire development journey,” IronSource CEO Tomer Bar-Zeev said in a press release. “We are very excited about the road ahead as we begin integrating our product portfolios more deeply and strengthening the feedback loop between creating great games and growing them into successful businesses. In doing so, we’ll be able to create a world where more creators are more successful than ever before.” It’s worth noting that in the intervening weeks since Unity and IronSource first announced their plans, AppLovin entered the conversation in a big way when it tabled a $20 billion offer for Unity, on the condition that Unity ended plans to merge with AppLovin’s rival, IronSource. After consideration, Unity ultimately rejected that offer, with its board noting that AppLovin’s offer wasn’t a “superior proposal.”

The Open 3D Engine adds improved terrain creation and collaboration tools • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in Enterprise, epic, open 3d foundation, open source, unity, unrealNo Comments

For a long time, the world of 3D engines — especially for game developers — was all about Unity and Epic’s Unreal Engine. Then, when Amazon started its ill-fated attempt to get into gaming, it launched the Lumberyard engine (which itself was based on Crytek’s CryEngine). And while you hopefully don’t remember the disappointment that was Crucible, the fact that those games didn’t pan out had an interesting effect. Amazon, which hasn’t always been known as a champion of open source, open-sourced Lumberyard and launched the Open 3D Foundation (under the Linux Foundation banner). Since then, Adobe, Microsoft, Intel, Huawei, Niantic, LightSpeed Studios and, most recently, Epic signed on as Premier foundation members. This week, the foundation, which is now just over a year old, is hosting its 3DCon conference and launching the latest version of the Open 3D Engine. The newest release (22.10) focuses on quality-of-life improvements around performance, workflow and usability. There is a new onboarding experience for new users, for example, and new tools for collaborating with other team members on remote projects, something that has only become more important in this day and age. Teams can now share and download projects by just sharing a URL, for example, and new project templates make it easier for new team members to get started. The developers also launched new features to make setting up and debugging multi-player applications easier, and for artists, it’s now easier to bring their animations in the Open 3D Engine. And for all of those developers building open-world games and experiences, there’s now an improved Terrain system that can scale up to 16x16km worlds. Image Credits: O3D Foundation “With this latest version, our community continues to focus on making it easier for developers, artists and content creators worldwide to build amazing 3D experiences, with an emphasis on performance, core stability and usability enhancements,” said Royal O’Brien, general manager of digital media and games at the Linux Foundation and executive director of O3DF. “It is gratifying to see the results of their hard work as the Open 3D Engine’s maturity accelerates on the path to becoming the go-to choice for creators who want a modular approach to building immersive experiences.” Image Credits: O3D Foundation It is, of course, interesting that the likes of Epic are joining an effort like the Open 3D Engine, which at first may seem like a competitor — and a free one at that. When I talked to O’Brien about this, he noted that this isn’t all that different from other open source projects that bring together competing vendors. Not only are these engines becoming increasingly complex, but a lot of what they offer at this point is also table stakes. Efforts like the Open 3D Foundation allow them to focus on the features that really set them apart. It helps that Lumberyard and now the Open 3D Engine were, from the outset, meant to be modular. But on top of that, the foundation also provides a neutral place for working on shared standards for interoperability to help developers and artists use the tools they want and then bring them into the engine of their choice, no matter whether they are building games or new AR/VR experiences.