Unity 6 will launch globally on October 17

Unity 6, billed as the most "stable and performant" version of the engine, will launch globally on October 17, 2024.

Breaking the news at its Unite conference in Barcelona, Unity said the next iteration of its popular game engine will provide developers with the tools and features required to "build more expansive and engaging games and reach more players across more platforms."

"Unity 6 will offer developers customisable graphics rendering for greater control over their gamesʼ visuals; simplified multiplayer game development to accelerate their journey through the entire game development lifecycle; and robust tools to build rich games optimised for web browsers," reads a press release.

Unity CEO Matt Bromberg, who recently scrapped the controversial Runtime Fee in a bid to win back the trust of developers, said Unity 6 will be backed by "deeper, long-term support" and receive dedicated product and engineering resources post-launch.

"[Developers] will also get frequent updates with new features, performance boosts, and bug fixes, all informed by their feedback and with minimal disruption to their ongoing projects," he added.

Unity 6 will receive a substantial 6.1 update in April 2025 to expand its core capabilities and introduce new features like support for foldable and larger screen formats, Deferred+ rendering in GPU Resident Drawer, and new build targets and profiles.

In a recent interview with Game Developer, Unity president of product Ryan Ellis explained the company will be taking a "generational" approach to supporting the engine. It's a tactic that will result in Unity 6 progressing via more formalised updates starting with Unity 6.1.