Unity Acquires Weta Digital In Huge $1.6 Billion Deal
Unity, the cross-platform game engine, has purchased renowned New Zealand-based special effects company Weta Digital in a landmark deal worth $1.625 billion. The deal will result in Weta Digital splitting its resources with the company’s engineers migrating to Unity and the VFX artists remaining under the newly formed Weta FX label, which will continue under the majority control of Weta co-founder, filmmaker Peter Jackson. This news has major implications for Unity as a company and the design, technology, and gaming industries in which they already operate as a major player. It also has some positive potential for IKIN and its Unity-based hologram technology. To dig deeper into the various influences of this acquisition, let’s start first with a brief look at Weta Digital and why they are such an impactful addition to Unity’s brand and operation.
Who is Weta Digital?
Weta Digital is the revolutionary visual effects company behind some of the biggest films and animated characters of the last three decades. Co-founded by filmmaker Peter Jackson and based in Wellington, New Zealand, Weta Digital breathed life into Tolkien’s Middle-earth in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, the lush jungle planet of Pandora in Avatar, and the groundbreaking motion-capture characters Gollum, Kong, Caesar, and Pete’s Dragon, Elliot. Weta Digital’s works have earned the company a slew of awards, including multiple Academy Awards and BAFTA Awards, and have positioned them as a premier effects house and home to 1,500 of the industry’s top artists, engineers, and executives.
What Does This Mean For Unity?
First off, the Weta Digital purchase gives an instant boost of prestige to Unity. Already an established name in gaming, Unity is now primed to build out their brand into all corners of the digital landscape. While the Weta VFX artists are not part of the deal, Unity does get Weta Digital’s 275+ engineers, which bring with them a wellspring of knowledge and deep digital skill sets. Unity also acquires Weta Digital’s deep library of original in-house digital effects and design tools, like City Builder, Manuka, Gazebo, and others, which have been used to create the many worlds and characters that are the company’s calling card. Lastly, the splintering of Weta into Weta Digital and Weta FX opens up the probability of a close working relationship between Unity and Weta FX in the future, which could mean big things for both companies down the line.
How May This Affect IKIN?
Now, IKIN is in no way part of this deal, but that doesn’t mean they are not affected by it. Luckily, it looks like the effects will be for the better because IKIN’S holograms are built using their Unity-based SDKs. The RYZ Unity SDK and the IKIN ARC Unity SDK automate the conversion of 2D digital content into 3D. They also allow designers and companies to render original holographic content, which can be viewed through the dimensional displays of the IKIN ARC large-format projector and the more compact RYZ mobile platform. IKIN’s holographic tech is visible in ambient light and doesn’t require the bulky headgear commonly associated with VR and AR. And, with this latest news of Unity building out its tools and industry reach, it opens new doors to the application possibilities of IKIN’s tech as well, just as IKIN is navigating into beta testing for its RYZ system.
