Microsoft today announced a big milestone for its Unity partnership: over 1,000 games have been published in the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store. That number was achieved in less than four months; in July, Unity’s cross-platform game developer tools began supporting the Windows and Windows Phone platforms.
Microsoft says it has seen “exponential growth of apps made with Unity” on both the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store since the release of Unity 4.2. Of course, exponential growth doesn’t mean much given that the figure was starting from essentially zero.
Nevertheless, to keep the fire hot, Microsoft has developed technical guides that explain how to bring Unity apps to Windows Store and Windows Phone Store, including specifics of the platforms, what developers need to get started, how to address platform-specific edge cases, and how to address roadblocks when building on Windows. The company is also expanding the gallery for showcasing Windows and Windows Phone apps made with Unity.
If you’re a developer who wants hands-on help, check out the porting guide schedule for cities around the world. It’s also worth noting that Unity 4.3 arrived just last week; the full release notes are here.
“This milestone is a powerful reminder of the incredible flexibility of the Unity technology and developer community,” Unity Technologies CEO David Helgason said in a statement. “The Windows Store apps add-on for Unity was just released in July and there are already over 1000 games powered by Unity available on Windows Phone 8 and Windows Store!”
We think it’s too early to get that excited. 1,000 games is a great number for Unity, but it’s still a very small one for Microsoft.
See also – Microsoft taps Unity, Marmalade, and Havok to help developers port Android and iOS games to Windows Phone and Microsoft merges Windows Store and Windows Phone developer accounts, offers one lower annual price of $19
Top Image Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
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