Union on board to bring games to Xperia Play
Platform deal sees reciprocal benefits as Unity games promoted on store
Union, an arm of the Unity company, and Sony Ericsson have penned a deal which will see Unity-based games brought to the new Xperia Play smartphone, and promoted in the 'recommended' section of the phone's store.
Unity are the creators of the Unity engine, which allows 3D development for browser, mobile and console titles. The company has developed a bespoke API to translate the Unity engine to the Xperia Play, facilitating easy porting of Unity engine titles. It's the first time that Unity has offered this kind of support to a device pre-launch.
As part of the deal, Sony Ericsson will be giving Unity games extra exposure via the platform's recommender application, and Unity will encourage its developers to bring ports and new titles to the phone.
"Sony Ericsson has a beautiful, ground-breaking gaming smartphone on its hands with the Xperia Play," said Union general manager Brett Seyler. "Through our partnership with Sony Ericsson and Union, we look forward to working with our developers to deliver mind-blowing gaming experiences for consumers, taking advantage of the Xperia Play's brilliant input design and powerful hardware."
In November last year, the Unity 3D engine surpassed 250,000 paying registered users, a growth of 237,000 users in one year.