Unity and ironSource merge to simplify launching and growing great mobile games

Today, we announced that our merger with ironSource is complete. It's a big day for Unity, and we’re excited because ironSource’s team and complementary capabilities will help us deliver even more ways to help game developers bring their vision to life: 

The leading end-to-end platform – The combination of Unity and ironSource is transformational in that it will give mobile game developers the tools they need at each stage of their development journey: from building, publishing, and operating mobile games to monetizing them, if they choose to, and growing their player base across multiple channels. 

Integrating creation and growth – It’s not just about having all of these tools in one place but also about connecting them so that they work together to simplify the whole development process. Together with ironSource, we can transform the linear mobile game development process into a deeply connected and interactive one. By integrating ironSource's products into Unity's platform, developers will be able to get real-world player and market feedback earlier in the development process, which means that they can learn what players really want, make better games and be on track for a more successful game businesses. 

When we announced our intent to merge with ironSource in July, we heard a lot of our community members sharing some concerns and I’d like to address the main ones directly:

“Is Unity no longer focused on games?”

Helping developers create great games that reach players where they are has always been and will stay at the heart of what we do (read our Games Focus blog series to learn more). Our goal is to make the tools that make it easier for developers to realize their vision – and that includes supporting that vision with resources to help them turn their games into sustainable businesses, if and when they choose to do so, which ironSource will help us do as they, too, are heavily focused on games.

“Is Unity now only focused on mobile game developers?”

While mobile is, of course, a huge platform for games, with 70% of all top mobile games globally made with Unity, we also remain committed to developing features for PCs, consoles, and XR. We want to ensure that all developers, from early learners working on their first game to the largest studios in the world, can rely on us regardless of the platform they choose to deploy their games on. 

The benefits from the merger with ironSource are, indeed, particularly strong for mobile game developers who choose advertising as their business model. Gamers are a highly engaged audience but only a small minority (less than 2%) utilize in-app purchase in the games they play. Advertising and in-app-purchases are the ways most mobile game developers choose to monetize their games. And most players welcome ads as a way to discover new games to play. This provides developers with the revenue to not only pay the bills, but also fund their growing teams - and build more beautiful games.

We know you will have a lot of questions about how Unity will integrate and introduce these products. We are committed to moving quickly and transparently to integrate our technologies to deliver the best tools and services and over the course of the next week will share more about the short-term benefits for mobile game developers in particular.

Unity’s mission remains the same: We want Unity to be the best development engine for creators to create what they imagine – no matter what they want to do.

Keep an eye here on our blog for more updates about product integration and roadmap over the next few weeks.