Early signs of the Revolution
TechCrunch recently reported that Unity Technologies has raised $5.5M from Sequoia Capital. While this seems as a minor investment in a small tech company, it is an important one in many respects.
First of all, the games industry is currently under heavy pressure. And with the success of Unity, the age where $300K 3D engines were industry standard seems to be slowly coming to an end. Engines like Unity open the doors for smaller development teams, and this in turn accelerates the creation of fresh games on fresh platforms.
Second, although Unity is well-known for it's iPhone support, it is an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to the web. This investment might give Unity the punch to become standard equipment for web games.
Why is this important? It opens up the web as a platform for high quality game titles. This fact alone cuts straight through the current business models and distribution methods of the games industry.
Platforms like Facebook, Netlog and others focus on games more than anything else. Combine this new breed of media platforms with a standardized tool like Unity3D, and the stage is set for a new era of games.
Adobe, Sony, Microsoft, watch out. The game is changing.