New Facebook integration heading to Unity

Unity Technologies is working closely with Facebook to introduce new functionality to its engine.

The two firms are collaborating on a new integration that aims to streamline the process of exporting and publishing games on Facebook from within Unity itself.

Facebook currently boasts an audience of more than 650m active players, and reports that it paid out over $2.5bn to games developers last year.

Unity will be letting selected developers test a closed-alpha build of the new ‘export to Facebook’ function, which will be delivered with version 5.4 of the engine. 

Studios have until August 31st to apply for access, and can do so here.

“Our mission is to give people the power to discover, play and share the games they love with the people they care about,” said Facebook’s director of global games partnerships Leo Olebe. “Unity is the world’s leading game development platform. It’s great to be working with them to help developers find new audiences for the games they pour their hearts into.”

Unity’s business development VP Elliot Solomon added: “Developers channel their talent and passion into creating amazing games, but development is only part of the challenge. Integrating tools that provide effortless access to Facebook’s network is a key part of helping developers find the success they deserve.”

UPDATE: MCV reports that as part of this partnership, Unity and Facebook are building a new ‘Steam-like’ PC gaming platform. More details here.