The Unity community can now build their games for Nintendo's Wii U.
Building a game engine is hard. Fortunately there are a variety of game engines available right now, such as the CryEngine 3 with their glorified toads. Another popular engine with indie and mainstream developers would be the Unity engine. The nice thing about this tool is that you could build a quick 3D shooter easily with this engine, then launch it to several devices like iOS or browsers. Pretty soon Unity developers can launch their games to the Nintendo Wii U.
Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity multi-platform engine and development tools has just signed a deal with Nintendo to allow this. The 1.2 million registered users of the Unity engine will be able to distribute their games through Nintendo's new console with a free add-on released later. The add-on will be available later in 2013, but this deployment add-on could make any game built in Unity work on the Nintendo Wii U.
"The rapid growth of incredible games coming from the experienced and talented developers in our community makes Unity the new development platform of choice for AAA console developers," said David Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies. "Nintendo's unfettered access to Unity will produce a wealth of insanely good games from knowledgeable Nintendo developers and the Wii U deployment add-on will create an amazing opportunity for our massive community of developers to showcase their incredible creativity on one of the most anticipated and innovative gaming platforms to date."
This definitely looks promising for Nintendo's new console, and a bit surprising. There are a variety of games already built in the Unity engine, from browser-based Pirate MMOs to action RPGs. Yet Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has stated in 2011 that Nintendo doesn't want to work with "garage developers" or hobbyists, which might fit the description of some Unity developers. Fils-Aime did retract his comment shortly after a backlash from gamers about the "garage developer" comment. But this seems to be Nintendo's way of inviting more indie developers to work on the Nintendo Wii U.
