If Unity is for sale, should you be worried?

It seems recently that whenever I power up a game on my Android phone, it’s there. That brief, fleeting acknowledgement of the engine that’s propelled that game from mere idea to an actual product. “Powered by Unity.” With rumors circulating on Twitter and various online publications, it is likely that the cross-platform development software will be in the hands of another company before long. It’s never too early to speculate, and with a few huge acquirers already named, this could add to the year’s slew of blockbuster deals.

(See: Major acquisitions in the US challenge Asia’s dominance of games industry M&A value)

United for now

Out of the gates, it’s hard to imagine that whoever purchases Unity could shake things up in a major way for the foreseeable future. Behemoths like that can’t change direction so easily. It’s not like the recent purchase of Minecraft developer Mojang by Microsoft stopped the release of a Playstation Vita port from being slated for release this week. The number of games that you see getting cancelled or switching engines as a result of the purchase will probably be no more than those that happen in the normal course of events.

At present most developers in Asia are focused on mobile platforms, and almost half of all mobile game developers are using Unity. While these developers are most dependent on the platform, there will likely be few major implications in the near term. If Unity gets too dicey, they can switch to iOS or Android software development kits—it’s hard to imagine a scenario where we see less mobile games coming from Asia, even if Unity somehow disappeared today. The drawback is that Unity provides a lot of flexibility at present, and developers can more easily develop for multiple platforms within the same environment.

Developed in Unity, Velocibox‘s creator decided to put the game on Steam.

Unity’s unique selling proposition has always been its allowing developers to easily navigate the different hardware and language requirements for the various gaming platforms, and the company’s big break was when it quickly adopted iOS development in the wake of the iPhone’s release. It would be a shame if this flexibility was stifled either because one of the major platforms was using to further its cause at the expense of the others, or if simply an indifferent company that decides to invest less in the software.

First World-Party Problems

Google has a ton of money in its coffers and is always searching for new tech ventures, which is why the American giant seemed the natural fit for the Twitch purchase earlier this year, though Amazon would be the one to buy the streaming service in the end. A potential Unity purchase could also make sense for Google, as it would have the flexibility to further incentivize Android development by either offering Unity with its own Android SDK, or simply failing to support other platforms as well as it does its own.

(See: What Twitch’s 970 million acquisition by Amazon could mean for Asia)

Google will likely not be the only potential suitor, and many of the potential consequences of it acquiring Unity would apply to other players like Microsoft or Sony, though neither of the two console makers have been named of late. As Sony and Microsoft each deal in more varied gaming platforms, they a multi-platform tool like Unity makes even more sense for them. Expect any company that acquires Unity to have a leg up in Asia if mobile is a strong part of its strategy.

Unreal alternatives

Unity has found itself the go-to for mobile developers of the small and midscale, but even Blizzard opted to use Unity when it developed its latest succtest hit, Hearthstone. With its constant evolution, ever-increasing ease of use, and affordability, Unity has democratized game development to a large degree. While not every indie developer can reasonably hope to develop the next Hearthstone, that they have access to a lot of the same tools is something unthinkable a decade ago.