by Barry Schuler, Partner
The summer of 2016 has firmly laid claim to the moniker “historic” with Great Britain’s Brexit, the nomination of the first female presidential candidate in the USA, and the discovery that alien life forms are living amongst us. Yes, Pokemon Go has also exploded on to the scene and become an instant summer phenomenon. Tens of millions of people are already hunting around in the real world collecting Pokemon characters in a clever and fun augmented reality (AR) game that was built on the Unity game development platform by Niantic Studio. As a bonus, for the first time, a whole generation of gamers are outside experiencing fresh air since the game takes place in the real world via your smartphone’s camera. This concept of blended reality is just a whisper of very exciting things to come.
Unity has been on a tear in the past couple of years and we are thrilled to partner up with CEO John Riccitiello and the entire team for their next chapter of growth. Unity’s platform is designed to allow content studios both Indie to Triple A to write code once and then publish to more than 25 of the most popular devices. While the concept of “write once/publish many” has been attempted in the past, no one has been able to do it while supporting incredibly beautiful high fidelity 3D graphics and animations, until Unity. And that’s why they have become the go-to platform for the majority of studios.
Unity claims an astonishing 31% market share of the top 1,000 grossing gaming titles, and growing fast.
More recently, Unity has launched a monetization platform that allows studios to easily embed ads into their games which Unity’s sales team will then go sell. This allows game developers to focus on the creative side of the business while Unity helps them succeed.
AR/VR — The Next Wave is Just Over the Horizon
While we are really excited about Unity’s game engine business, it’s the next wave, AR and virtual reality (VR), that gets our heart rate going. The general consensus around the tech community is that AR/VR is coming and it is not just about games and entertainment, but ultimately the next generation of devices that will replace our computers and mobile devices. The big idea being that rather than looking through small glass screens, computing will become highly visual and immersive — “visual computing.” Here is where Unity has a real opportunity to be the platform of the future.
For the first time in the history of Silicon Valley a brand new platform is emerging and the industry is not being driven by Microsoft or Apple.
Several major companies have introduced AR/VR platforms. Microsoft Halolens, Facebook Occulus, Samsung/Gear VR, HTC Vive, and Google Cardboard have already thrown their hats into the ring and more are coming. This is great for consumers since they will have many choices. Normally this would be a nightmare for developers who would have to spend considerable resources to support each device or make a bet on which one emerges as a leader. Unity has solved this dilemma.
Unity invested in AR/VR early and supports all of the major devices, so again all a developer has to do is write in Unity and they can publish to every device. And gaming is only the beginning.
The Immersive Web
When the Internet first came along, companies and individuals all created “Home Pages,” very simple static brochures that staked a claim on the information superhighway. As the technology advanced, websites became dynamic, transactional, and rich with video and audio. The result was not just a brochure about the product you wanted to buy, but the ability to buy it 24 x 7.
Visual computing is going to raise the bar to orbital levels. Imagine being able to walk around a hotel room before you book it, or sit inside all of the cars you might purchase, or experience Everest’s summit without the risk of orphaning your children.
And then there are all of the things we never dreamed of that will emerge when the creativity of the tech community is fully unleashed — this is where Unity excels.
Unity’s unique tools and platform are already equipped to support all of the major AR/VR devices as well as those coming. This will allow creative studios to develop content and applications with the confidence it will work at full fidelity for whatever system consumers choose. We believe this will help accelerate the creation of thousands of exciting applications. If there is one thing the smartphone revolution taught us, it’s that the apps make the device.
DFJ Growth is proud to lead Unity’s $181 million Series C which will give the company plenty of capital to continue innovating for what lies ahead. I am excited to join the board to help the team shape the next wave. Can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Now excuse me, Pikachu is tormenting me.
Barry Schuler is a partner at DFJ
@bschuler
