The merger of Unity and IronSource is complete.
Confirmation came via a blog post by Unity CEO John Riccitiello, who shared more about the company’s ambitions now that IronSource’s various products, which centre around monetising and advertising mobile apps, will be integrated into the Unity platform.
The deal was announced back in July, follows a string of expansions for Unity after the acquisitions of Ziva Dynamics, Pixyz Software, SpeedTree, Parsec, SyncSketch and famed visual effects outfit Weta Digital.
Unity’s continued push into other tech and entertainment sectors has prompted developers to question whether the engine provider is still dedicated to the video games industry.
John Riccitiello addressed these concerns in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz last month, and reiterated in his post today that “helping developers create great games that reach players where they are has always been and will stay at the heart of what we do.”
The CEO also responded to concerns that Unity is focusing primarily on mobile developers, writing that while mobile remains a huge platform, the company “remains committed to developing features for PC, consoles and XR.”
“The benefits from the merger with ironSource are, indeed, particularly strong for mobile game developers who choose advertising as their business mode,” he acknowledged, adding that most mobile developers using advertising and in-app purchases to monetise their games and claiming most players “welcome ads as a way to discover new games to play.”
“We know you will have a lot of questions about how Unity will integrate and introduce these products,” he concluded.
“We are committed to moving quickly and transparently to integrate our technologies to deliver the best tools and services and over the course of the next week will share more about the short-term benefits for mobile game developers in particular.”
In the wake of the merger’s announcement, developers also raised concerns over a past incident where IronSource’s first product was classified as malware and discontinued after backlash.
Unity told GamesIndustry.biz this malware came from “bad actors who abused the platform” and emphasised that the IronSource desktop business they used was “spun off several years ago.”
The Unity and IronSorce merger was nearly blocked by rival monetisation specialist AppLovin, which made a public offer to merge with Unity instead.
Unity rejected this deal, and AppLovin took the offer off the table a little over a month later.