170,000 Devs Using Unity At Fifth Anniversary

As it reaches its fifth anniversary, tech company Unity is celebrating some milestones: its free web player has seen 30 million installs, and its developer userbase is up to 170,000, the company announced. Launched in 2005, Unity began with the aim of "democratizing" development, enabling creators to make 3D games on web platforms, and has since expanded to support mobile platforms like iPhone, Android and iPad, as well as consoles like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. "In just five years since its introduction, Unity has gone from bedroom geekery to truly mainstream," says CEO David Helgason. "We thrive on innovating and heavily reinvest in development to keep moving and growing at a radical pace so we can continue to raise the bar for innovation and continue to amaze our customers." Helgason is also one of the company's original founders, along with chief creative officer Nicholas Francis and chief technology officer Joachim Ante. Today, the company claims to be one of the fastest-growing software companies, with mobile and social gaming its highest-activity areas. Notably, it claims to be the most widely-used development middleware on Apple's App Store. The explosion of iPhone gaming has helped Unity triple in size during the past year, according to the company.