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Unity 4 Early Access for Windows Store apps

March 7, 2013 in Technology | 3 min. read
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It is an honor for me to announce the Windows Store apps early access program. Starting with Unity 4.2 you will be able to develop games for PCs and tablets running Windows 8* and Windows RT and publish them to the Windows Store. This opens up a new global platform for you to reach even more people eager to play great Unity-authored games and interactive content.

If you feel brave enough to be an early adopter and play with technology still in development, then enroll in our Windows Store apps early access program. If you are an intermediate or advanced Unity user, WE WANT YOU! As a participant of our beta, you get to test our new platform, report bugs and provide relevant feedback that will help Unity create a great product and jump start your Windows Store plans. We do ask for your patience though; depending on the number of people who register for the program it could take time for us to process the requests and send you the link to the beta site.

Is it ready for my team?

We’ve been working on the support of Windows Store apps for a while now. The below Unity-authored games have already been published in the Windows Store:

Orcs Must Survive Drift Mania Championship 2 Pettson's Inventions Gunpowder Rumpelstiltskin 3D Snow White Prequel Razor Salvation,  Siegecraft Qbism Hungry MonstR Fling Theory Experiment HD,  Big Buck Hunter Living Stories: Das Verlorene Herz.

Unity 4 Windows Store apps support is still in development. It is not feature complete nor fully optimized so there may be some bugs lurking. By joining our beta testing program you can help us accelerate development, ensuring this is a great product for all of our developers.

What hardware is supported?

With Unity 4.2 you will be able to publish games as Windows Store apps targeting x86 and ARM systems. The minimum DirectX version supported is DirectX 11 Feature level 9.1, so your games will run on almost any PC and tablet that is running on Windows 8 or Windows RT.

How can I publish my games to Windows Store?

You will be able to port your existing games to the Windows Store apps platform using the Unity 4.2 alpha/beta builds. We will provide a two month trial license key for all registered beta participants that will unlock Windows Store app platform support in the Unity toolset.

Please note that any project deployed with a trial license will be watermarked and not for commercial release. Developers who wish to publish their games on Windows Store using our alpha/beta builds should contact the Unity Sales Department.

PLEASE BE AWARE

Please do not enter this early access program if you have any time sensitive dependencies to release your Unity product in the Windows Store. This Unity Beta product will not be fully functional nor contain a full commercial feature locked set of tools. New users to Unity should wait to develop in Unity for Windows Store until after the public commercial release.

We appreciate you carefully understanding what your expectations are and not depending on this Beta Product for any of your deadlines. We’re excited to progress this product with the help of you, your team, and our incredible Pro user community. Depending on the number of people who register for the program, it could take time for us to process the requests and send you the link to the beta site. Thanks for your help and patience in advance.

*Regular desktop application development for Windows was, is and will be a part of existing Unity product. The ability to develop a new Windows Store app based on Windows Runtime will be introduced in 4.2.

March 7, 2013 in Technology | 3 min. read

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