Nintendo partners with Unity engine for Wii U

San Francisco, California-based Unity Technologies, makers of the Unity multi-platform engine, has entered into a worldwide license agreement with Nintendo to provide a version of its engine to the publisher and its third-party Wii U development partners.

The deal will provide Nintendo with the right to distribute the Unity development platform to its in-house, external, and third party licensee developers. Unity Technologies said that it will collaborate with the publisher to create a Wii U deployment add-on, which will provide Unity's 1.2 million registered developers, including mobile and social game studio, the opportunity to bring titles from Unity's existing catalogue to the Wii U.

"Nintendo's unfettered access to Unity will produce a wealth of insanely good games from knowledgeable Nintendo developers, and the Wii U deployment add-on will create an amazing opportunity for our massive community of developers to showcase their incredible creativity on one of the most anticipated and innovative gaming platforms to date," Unity Technologies CEO David Helgason said.

According to the company, Unity's Wii U deployment option will become widely available in 2013.

Currently, the Unity platform is able to create 2D and 3D content for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, and Web.

The Wii U will be launching November 18 in North America for $299 (8GB version) and $399 (32GB version).