Unity game development engine now supports Vita — brings total to 13 platforms

Unity Technologies’ latest move could help it carve further into the game-engine market dominated by Epic Games.

In a blog post today, the software company has brought its development suite to the PlayStation Vita, giving it a four-platform advantage over competitor Epic Games’ Unreal Engine.

Unity Technologies stated in a March blog post that it won’t stop until it dominates the video game industry. Its first step is to catch up to Unreal Engine, which numerous high-profile studios such as Irrational Games and BioWare licensed for their biggest games. While Unreal has a more impressive showcase than Unity, it’s only available on nine platforms compared to Unity’s new total of 13. And Unity is a favorite for companies looking to port games.

Unity is now available on every major console, computer, and mobile video game platform except for Nintendo’s 3DS and the recently released PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The development engine has been used to produce several notable games — 2014 Game Developers Choice Award nominees Gone Home and Device 6 and PC gaming publication Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s 2013 Game of the Year: Kentucky Route Zero.

For licensed Vita developers, today’s announcement is great news. They can now build and test games directly on their development kits, special versions of the device that enable game creators complete access to the system’s resources, using Unity and its integrated development environment (IDE). The software’s unique cross-platform tools make it easier to develop a game for multiple systems, eliminating the need to rewrite its code from scratch each time.

In addition, Unity for Vita supports platform-specific functionality, such as access to its unique hardware (rear touchpad, front and rear cameras, dual analog sticks, motion sensors) and its PlayStation Network features (friends, trophies, and multiplayer matchmaking).

Here is a link to the massive list of release notes for readers interested in the details of Unity’s latest 4.3 version.