Unity Technologies

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - July 15, 2010 – Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity development platform for highly interactive 3D content on the web, iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac, Android, Wii ^TM , Xbox 360 and PlayStation ^® 3, today announced that it has received Develop’s Industry Excellence Tech Innovator Award and the highly desired Grand Prix Award for its outstanding contributions to the sector as a whole ( http://www.develop-online.net/news/35384/Develop-Awards-Unity-takes-Grand-Prix). These honors come as the company celebrates five years of steadfast leadership and relentless innovation in enabling and empowering rich interactive 3D games for web, mobile, console and anywhere else where games and immersive experiences are called for ( http://unity3d.com/company/news/unity-5year-press.html).

“We’re so honored to receive these fantastic awards,” said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. “Unity Technologies has always been focused on getting game development in the hands of everyone - from the most demanding customers to the indies who are just getting started. This recognition feels fantastic, especially as it’s the very first time a game engine company has received this honor. At the same time, this comes before our launch of Unity 3 - our biggest update ever, which will truly take Unity to new places.”

"The Develop Grand Prix Award is given to a company that is centered on development and developers, disruptive in nature with a European focus but with a global record of success. The winner this year - Unity Technologies - definitely matches these criteria,” said Phil Harrison, co-founder of London Venture Partners onstage as he announced Unity Technologies won the Grand Prix Award. ”Unity Technologies has delivered on a vision of the future that has transformed the way games are made, distributed and played. On the face of it, their technology delivers console-quality 3D graphics in a web browser or on an iPhone. But at its heart, they have successfully nurtured a powerful community of developers that work together and support each other which is now over 200,000 strong and counting which is an amazing achievement for a company started by 3 friends in Copenhagen.”

In early 2003 and long before the introduction of Facebook and the iPhone, co-founders David Helgason (CEO), Nicholas Francis (Chief Creative Officer) and Joachim Ante (Chief Technology Officer) had the vision of democratizing game development and enabling everyone to create rich interactive 3D which would disrupt the gaming industry. They took the very complex and expensive technology required for modern, cross-platform video game development and built a powerful, intuitive suite of tools with smooth and efficient workflows around it. The result: Unity - a breakthrough development platform for creating high quality 3D interactive content including video games, training simulations and medical and architectural visualizations. Apple invited Unity Technologies to launch Unity onstage at WWDC in June 2005.

Today, Unity is the #1 game engine on the market and in education, by far the leading game technology on the iPhone and iPad and the fastest growing game development platform in terms of developer mindshare. Unity powers web games for global brand names like Electronic Arts, Axe, Cadbury Crunchie, Cartoon Network, Cheerios, Coca-Cola, DC Comics/Warner Bros., Disney, Gorillaz, Iron Man, LEGO ^® , Looney Tunes/Warner Bros., Marvel Super Hero Squad, Pepsi and Tiger Woods. Unity also powers mobile hit games like Ravensword: The Fallen King, Samurai: Way of the Warrior, Skee-Ball, Star Wars Trench Run and Zombieville USA as well as training apps like Launcher Dogs for the US Military.

At the same time, tens of thousands of developers are leveraging Unity's innovations to create innovations of their own — new unique control interfaces, real-time sports broadcasting, new ways of interacting with social networks, new ways to advertise products, augmented reality (AR) games, integrated devices and many more. Recent examples of this creativity include Qualcomm using Unity for their state-of-the-art AR toolkit, a game that uses a cereal box as a game controller via a webcam and a game that turns the iPhone into a game controller for a web game connected over Wi-Fi. To see where developers are taking Unity, go to: http://unity3d.com/gallery.

To get the free feature-packed Unity to create games and interactive visualizations for the web, PC and Mac or to get a free 30 day evaluation of Unity Pro, go to: http://unity3d.com/unity/download.

About Unite 2010

Unity Technologies is holding Unite 2010, its 4th annual developer conference for artists, programmers, designers, researchers, publishers and enthusiasts, November 10-12 at the historic Marché Bonsecours in Old Montreal, Canada following the Montreal International Game Summit. Unite 2010 will offer three days of material including advanced hands-on classes and technical sessions, and there will be plenty of time to network, socialize and have fun. For more information on Unite 2010 and to register, go to: http://unity3d.com/unite/.

About Unity Technologies

Unity Technologies is revolutionizing the game industry and was named one of the top five game companies of 2009 by Gamasutra after just four years on the market. Today Unity Technologies has more than 170,000 registered users worldwide – including Bigpoint, Cartoon Network, Coca-Cola, Disney, Electronic Arts, LEGO, Microsoft, NASA, Panasonic, Ubisoft, Warner Bros., large and small studios, independent professionals, students and hobbyists – using the Unity platform to develop high-quality interactive 3D content for the web, mobile and console. Unity Technologies is one of the fastest growing software companies and is aggressively innovating to expand usability, power and platform reach so that it can deliver on its vision of democratizing interactive 3D technology. Unity Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco and has development offices worldwide. For more information, visit http://unity3d.com/.