Four years after announcing their cloud partnership with Google, it seems Unity have found a new online dance partner, Microsoft Azure. Today they have announced a broad partnership with Microsoft and specifically Microsoft Azure, which will have an impact on a wide variety of Unity’s online offerings.
Details of the partnership from the Microsoft announcement:
That is why today, Unity has selected Azure as its cloud partner for building and operating real-time 3D (RT3D) experiences from the Unity engine. In addition, we’re excited to work together to make it easier for game creators around the world to publish to Xbox consoles and PC so they can reach their communities.
The magic of 3D interactive experiences born in games is quickly moving to non-gaming worlds. Unity is building a platform-agnostic, cloud-native solution that meets the wide-ranging needs of all developers from enterprise through citizen creators. By giving creators easy access to RT3D simulation tools and the ability to create digital twins of real-world places and objects, Unity is offering creators an easy path to production of RT3D assets, whether for games or non-gaming worlds. To support this evolution, creators require a technical infrastructure that is as dynamic and innovative as they are. Azure is that solution. Built for security and global scalability, Azure already supports some of the world’s largest games and is bringing those battle-tested learnings to power RT3D experiences for all industries. As the need for real-time simulation becomes central to every industry ranging from e-commerce to energy, manufacturing to medical and more, Unity and Microsoft are building the creator cloud that empowers 3D artists to build and run those experiences on Azure.
Our ambition to democratize development of games and game-like experiences around the world and across industries depends on strong partnerships, particularly with game engines like Unity. The partnership between Microsoft and Unity will also enable Made with Unity game creators to more easily reach their players across Windows and Xbox devices and unlock new success opportunities. By engineering improved developer tools, leveraging the latest platform innovation from silicon to cloud, and simplifying the publishing experience, Unity creators will be able to realize their dreams by bringing their games to more gamers around the world.
Key Links
Previous Google Partnership Announcement
For most Unity Game Services users, the partnership should be fairly transparent and should have no major negative impact on their services. You can learn more about the Unity x Microsoft Azure partnership in the video below.