Microsoft Game Dev – A Fireside Chat with Unity’s Marc Whitten

​

Unity, our long-standing partner in 3D technology and a world leader in the field, announced that Azure had been selected as the cloud partner to build and run real-time 3D (RT3D), experiences through the Unity engine. Our shared goal to expand the distribution and creation of 3D content and bring relevant technologies and tools to more developers and make it simpler to deliver games to gamers is what this strengthening of our partnership reflects.

N’Gaicroal was the Microsoft Game Dev Editorial director. He had the pleasure to virtual sit down with Marc Whitten the Senior Vice President and General manager of Unity Create Solutions to discuss the ways we work together to make it more easy for creators all over the globe to publish their games to Xbox consoles or PC. This will allow them to better reach existing audiences as well as build new ones. Watch the entire chat on YouTube or watch it below.

It was a wide-ranging discussion that covered everything, from Hollywood’s similarities and differences to Unity’s inclusion of Ziva Dynamics and Weta Digital to their Unity Create Solutions toolkit. The discussion centered on how cloud computing has changed the game industry and how Unity’s partnership will enable them to offer developers more powerful tools and flexibility.

Below are some pertinent quotes, slightly edited to improve clarity.

Marc Whitten questions whether technology is more important in movies than it is for games.

My belief is that both game designers and players are at the forefront of pushing technology to its limits. Then, that often filters through into other applications. Humans like entertainment and games. If you hand any piece of technology over to someone, they will make a game from it. If you hand that technology to a user, they will ask the creator for suggestions to improve it.

Marc Whitten discusses the importance to use cloud-native tools for game development:

In a hybrid world creators will be working in more different places when they are in groups. It is crucial that they can collaborate, work together on assets in the cloud and have access to hardware from any location.

Marc Whitten explains why Unity selected Azure to be its cloud partner.

Talking to Azure’s top engineers and leaders, we came up with a common vision. We were excited about the possibilities of this partnership and they were helpful in helping to identify potential blind spots. As we seek to increase our cloud-based value and enhance the impact of technologies and products like these, they are a wonderful partner.