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Create Solutions is increasingly non-game business, but Unity says all parts of its userbase contributed to its "strong performance" for its second quarter of 2022.

Justin Carter, Contributing Editor

August 11, 2022

3 Min Read
A screenshot from Neon White.
Neon White was a recent game created in Unity.

Engine maker Unity has had a tumultuous summer, but its second quarter financials of fiscal year 2022 have shown that the company continued to generate revenue in spite of it all. The company's revenue was reported at $297 million, a 9 percent increase from the second quarter of 2021.

Interestingly, revenue derived from video game development is making up a smaller percentage of overall business when compared to years past. In just Q2 2022, non-game business made up 40 percent of the Create Solutions segment's dealings. For all of 2021, that figure was only 25 percent.

Unity has long spoken about growth opportunities outside of games, and its actions and finances in recent months have now started to reflect that shift (much to the dismay of some game developers).

Even with the increase in revenue for the quarter, the company saw some noticeable decreases. Operate Solutions had revenue of $159 million (13 percent down from 2021), and Strategic Partnerships saw $18 million (2 percent decrease). 

However, Unity's Create Solutions, which covers the company's engine and tools for creation, saw an increase in its revenue. Create is said to have made $121 million, up 66 percent year-over-year. 

The company maintains that the engine is going strong in the game development world. Create lead Marc Whitten pointed out how prevalent the engine is across various platforms, particularly VR and mobile, noting that recent titles such as the PC game Neon White and the mobile title Disney Mirrorverse were made in Unity.

"In VR, on Oculus Quest, Unity Games made up 80 percent of the most popular games in July and 72 percent of the top selling games," added Whitten. "And millions of mobile game developers around the world are using Unity to build the next generation of successful games."

Unity is "much more than games now," says CEO

As the Create division was praised, Riccitiello was also quick to point out that Unity is "much more than games now." The CEO boasted that 25 percent of the total Create business was non-game for the whole year of 2021. By the end of 2022's second quarter, that number had jumped to 40 percent.

Despite games making up an increasingly smaller slice of the revenue pie, Riccitiello added during a conference call that Q2 made for Unity's best-ever quarter in terms of revenue for its games business.

"I want to acknowledge the amazing games made by creators on Unity and the inspiration that it is to us. Their dedication and commitment to the craft of game development pushes us to constantly innovate and evolve our products."

After announcing its controversial plan to merge with monetization platform IronSource last month, CEO John Riccitiello came under fire when he called referred to the developers resisting this merger as "fucking idiots," for which he later apologized. Shortly after, marketing platform AppLovin proposed its own $20 billion merger with Unity.

Unity also recently signed a multi-billion dollar contract with technology firm CACI, which works with the US government on various defense initiatives. And just a few days ago, it signed a deal with Microsoft to use the Xbox maker's Azure cloud technology. 

About the Author(s)

Justin Carter

Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com

A Kansas City, MO native, Justin Carter has written for numerous sites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his writing can be found at io9 over on Gizmodo. Don't ask him about how much gum he's had, because the answer will be more than he's willing to admit.

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