Oculus founder Palmer Luckey revealed today at Vision Summit 2016 that the company would be giving away 4 months of Unity Professional Edition for free with the purchase of an Oculus Rift.
The move comes as a bid to entice consumers into making the leap into VR development. Luckey asserts that the VR marketplace is ripe for new ideas, and not just ‘some old concept with a new twist.’
“I think that people should start making things right now, and not just making things that are some old concept with a new twist, but making things that are entirely new. The cool thing about VR right now is that even though you have all these big companies getting into it and putting lots of resources into making sure that the public believes in it, you don’t have a huge number of people that are dominating the content marketplace. You don’t have an overcrowded marketplace like you can have on mobile and see on PC right now…” said Luckey.
Luckey maintains that if people do for VR what mobile developers did for mobile games “they’re going to be successful and they’re going to be able to pay their bills.”
Unity Pro, which carries with it a $75 per month subscription fee, provides developers with things like customizable splash screens, and a host of customer support options. Unity Personal edition is full-feature engine that is entirely free of charge, and is said to be receiving an update that will allow you to build VR games while inside virtual reality itself.