Unity releases Unity 6, CEO Matt Bromberg’s first major product launch | Wilnesh News

Five months after taking office as CEO unified softwareMatt Bromberg is overseeing the launch of his first big product as he tries to push the company through a series of challenges.

On Friday, the video game software company announced the sixth version of its flagship Unity Engine, a set of tools developers can use to create games on a variety of devices, including iPhones and Android phones.

Bromberg told CNBC that Unity 6 emphasizes stability, predictable updates and the ability to support hundreds of players in the same virtual world simultaneously. The company is seeking to recover from a dark period that included layoffs, significant losses, troubled relationships with many customers and changes at the top.

“With the release of Unity 6, we’re interested in reconnecting with our customers and helping them understand that we’re committed to delivering important products to them, and that we’re going to be a completely different company in that regard,” Bromberg said.

Bromberg is a gaming industry veteran Appoint CEO May 1st. He previously served as chief operating officer of mobile gaming company Zynga for nearly six years, before the company was acquired Two points of interaction By 2022, more than four years Electronic Arts.

Bromberg’s predecessor, John Riccitiello, announced his retirement in October after controversial price changes that frustrated many developers. Former Red Hat CEO James Whitehurst served as interim CEO before Bromberg joined.

The first big challenge facing the new CEO is undoing Riccitiello’s decision to implement “Unity runtime fees.”

Traditionally, Unity sold its software on a per-seat basis, so the company paid an annual fee for the engine per user. Last September, the company said customers would have to start paying a flat fee every time they downloaded an app or game that used Unity. game developer rebellious and threatened to find an alternative game engine.

Last month, Unity eliminated runtime fees. For companies with more than $200,000 in revenue, Unity Engine 6 costs approximately $2,200 per user per year. The largest customers will be able to negotiate pricing. Unity said it will increase prices on a predictable annual schedule.

“We say to our customers, hey, this is the foundation on which you can build a multibillion-dollar gaming business,” Bromberg said.

Unity is used to build most mobile games, including Monopoly Go, which earns estimated According to one estimate, it’s worth $3 billion.

Unity’s problem isn’t just a changing business model. The stock is down 23% over the past year and has lost 90% of its value since its peak in November 2021. Company initial public offering.

Q2, Unity report Net losses exceeded $125 million. In January, the company said it would cut about a quarter of its workforce, or about 1,800 jobs, to improve long-term profitability.

Even through a tumultuous period, the company has maintained its strength with game developers. Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in September that Unity’s game engine still commands 70% of the mobile market, proving “how deep its moat really is because competitors can’t gain share at the expense of Unity.”

Bromberg told CNBC that Unity is moving away from the hype of generative artificial intelligence. Game developers are often skeptical of generative AI, as many believe it plagiarizes the work of other artists and represents low-cost competition.

“We’re not very interested in investing in generative AI,” Bromberg said. Instead, Unity will support artwork and character designs created using AI, and will use AI behind the scenes to speed up game releases.

Another area Bromberg is focused on is streamlining the company’s progression into the enterprise space. In previous years, Unity has said that its game engine can be used for a variety of 3D simulations, including “digital twins,” a buzzword that describes the creation of complete digital simulations of complex operations, such as factories.

Now it’s more about games, which can include a lot of 3D elements.

“Our future strategy will be more focused on organic uses of our engines in industry,” Bromberg said. “It depends on 3D visualization.”

Bloomberg said he remains optimistic about virtual reality and augmented reality, including Apple’s Vision Pro headset, supported by Unity 6.

“The real strength of Unity is that we can create really large, immersive experiences in the engine, and then you can distribute them to any device, no matter how lightweight it is – the world’s worst phone, a pair of glasses , a headset,” Bloomberg said.