Oculus Rift Developers get Support From Unity Technologies

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Oculus Rift Developers get Extra Boost of Support from Unity Technologies

Irvine, CA – March 25, 2013 – Oculus VR, Inc., creators of the highly anticipated Oculus Rift, announced that it has partnered with Unity Technologies, developer of the Unity multi-platform engine and development tools, to provide every Rift developer with an extended Unity Pro trial license, free of charge. The extended trial is designed to let Rift developers leverage Unity Pro to develop incredibly rich and immersive virtual reality gaming and interactive experiences.

“Unity provides game developers with amazing tools that bring joy to the process of creating games, while also lowering the financial and time barriers of high-end production,” said David Helgason, CEO and co-founder, Unity Technologies. “The next generation of video games will not only be found on consoles, but also on PCs, mobile devices and in the cloud though none of these platforms offer the ability to step into the experience. That is where the Oculus Rift comes in. We’re partnering with Oculus to give Unity developers the ability to create the most immersive gaming experiences yet.”

The Oculus Rift development kit, combined with a four-month Unity Pro trial license, will give developers the time, the integration code, the intuitive toolset and access to thousands of ready-made assets from the Unity Asset Store to create VR games and interactive content across a range of platforms. The extended Unity Pro trial license is available to any developer who purchases an Oculus Rift development kit.

“The Unity engine’s innovative design, ease of use, and flexibility have helped game developers of all skill levels develop some of the most unique games on the market,” said Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus. “Like Unity, we share the desire to help developers create games unlike any other, and we look forward to seeing our combined technologies transformed into virtual reality.”

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that allows users to step into the game. It provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience with a huge field of view—110 degrees diagonally—and overcomes the latency problems that have plagued previous VR gaming headsets, where movement in the game lags behind movement of the player’s head. Development kits for the Oculus Rift, which game developers can use to create Oculus-ready VR applications and interactive content, will begin shipping to backers at the end of March 2013.

The Unity Pro license extension will be available through the Oculus Developer Center starting April 1, 2013.
About Unity Technologies

Unity Technologies is the creator of Unity, a flexible and high-performance development platform used to make creative and intelligent interactive 3D and 2D experiences. The "author once, deploy everywhere" capability enables developers to deploy to all of the most important platforms. Unity Technologies boasts a thriving community of 1.5 million developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists. To remain at the forefront of innovation, Unity Technologies tirelessly re-invests in its award-winning 3D development tools and its democratization initiatives, such as the Asset Store digital marketplace and Union game distribution service. Unity Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Singapore, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit: http://unity3d.com.
About Oculus VR, Inc.

Oculus VR, Inc. is a technology company revolutionizing the way people experience video games. The company’s first product, the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset designed for immersive gaming, is currently in development. Developer kits for the Oculus Rift are set to ship in March 2013. The company was founded by Palmer Luckey along with veterans of RedOctane, developers of the acclaimed Guitar Hero series; Scaleform, the leading user interface middleware in the game industry; and Gaikai, the cloud gaming start-up recently acquired by Sony. For more information, visit: www.oculusvr.com.