We Must Unite

It’s one of the most popular game engines in the world. Where does Unity go from here?

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Clive Downie is CMO of Unity, which retains a commanding position over the 3D game-engine market. It’s a go-to for hobbyist developers, indie studios and beyond, and its feature set continues to grow: additions last year included a shader editor, native photogrammetry support, built-in cinematic tools and multiplayer netcode and server tools. But Unreal Engine 4 has also risen, sporting a similar low-cost business model but backed by Epic’s technical reputation. Having previously worked at EA, Ngmoco, and Zynga, today Downie’s job is to bring Unity’s reputation up to match its capabilities and reach, while expanding its horizons beyond games.

What’s it like working for a game-engine maker, having spent so long in mobile games? 

Actually, it doesn’t differ too much. At the centre of all of them is a passion for gaming, but also my own desire is, frankly, to only be involved in consequential things. I left EA to work with a good friend of mine, Neil Young, who founded Ngmoco. He realised early on that mobile was the next great domain for entertainment and I wanted to be part of that. We led the free-to-play mobile charge, and when DeNA made us their western division, it became about taking really smart Japanese mobile-gaming values and applying them to the west.

Did you feel Zynga reached the same level of consequence?