Sony Computer Entertainment announces Unity for PlayStation

Sony Computer Entertainment and Unity Technologies have announced that they have formed a strategic partnership. The partnership focuses on the Unity multi-platform engine and development tools. The strategic partnership between these two companies kicked off on March 15 of this year.

The partnership will see Sony offer Unity for PlayStation to provide an optimized development environment that works for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation Mobile. Sony says that PlayStation platform development tools will be ruled out starting this fall. Developers with a license agreement from Sony for the PlayStation SDK will be able to build and deploy what Sony calls entertainment experiences for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita without spending as much resources on complicated programming processes.

The Unity for PlayStation system will allow developers to port games to each of the Sony gaming offerings without having to rewrite code from scratch. Using Unity developers will also be able to bring IP to dedicated console systems like the PlayStation Vita and still allow gamers to take advantage of the unique features of each platform such as root touchpads, dual analog sticks, front and rear cameras, and motion sensors.

The system will also allow developers to create games for PlayStation Mobile without having to use an additional PlayStation Mobile SDK. Sony says it will also enable developers using Unity to create games for future cloud services that will be delivered by Sony Computer Entertainment by utilizing Unity for PlayStation. Games developed using the new platform will be available via the PlayStation Store and developers will be able to integrate PlayStation Network features into their games using the platform such as trophy functionality.

[via Unity]