Unity details Xiaomi partnership

Unity has offered up further information on its deal with Chinese tech outfit Xiaomi that it says can offer developers "unparalleled access and distribution" to China’s mobile market. Starting next year, developers will be able to use Unity to publish their games to Xiaomi’s app store.

The Chinese firm will also be on hand to offer developers help when negotiating local licensing terms, a process which is viewed as a major obstacle for games companies based outside of China that are trying to break into the country.

The Xiaomi app store is a profitable enough target for developers though, it’s had 50 billion apps downloaded from it to date, making access an attractive proposal for many developers, although Unity haven’t given an exact timeframe beyond "2017" for exports to Xiaomi to kick off.

Unity will also allow Developers to enable Unity Ads in their title, notable as the first time a third-party ad network has been allowed on any Chinese Android app stores. Developers will also be able to port their IAP’s to the app store with Unity IAP.

“A large part of ensuring developer success is providing access to the platforms that matter most,” said Andrew Tang, China Country Manager at Unity Technologies.

“By partnering with Xiaomi we can help Unity developers bring their creative vision to a massive audience and accelerate the progress of quality entertainment worldwide.”