Unity Technologies is bringing in some of the talent that worked on Ratchet & Clank and Sunset Overdrive to help beef up the optimization and performance of the Unity game-development engine. The company announced today that it has hired Mike Acton and Anreas Fredriksson, who both previously worked for Insomniac Games studio. Acton and Fredriksson will oversee the engine out of Unity’s new Los Angeles office as principal engineers.
“Mike and Andreas have built a legacy in data-oriented programming and best-in-class triple-A engine development,” Unity chief technology officer Joachim Ante said in a statement. “Applying the lessons of data-oriented design is a core part of the future of Unity Technologies. Mike and Andreas are the obvious choices to propel us toward that future.”
Unity is one of the most popular game-creation toolkits in the world. Developers use it to build games for PC, consoles, and smartphones and tablets. It is one of the primary competitors of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, which is popular among many studios because of how well it handles 3D visuals. With Acton and Fredriksson’s help, Unity could see major improvements in its 3D graphics as well.
“We can’t wait to make state-of-the-art performance accessible to everyone,” said Acton. “We want Unity to set a new industry bar for out-of-the-box, raw performance and feel strongly that with our industry experience, we can make this happen.”
June 5th: The AI Audit in NYC
Join us next week in NYC to engage with top executive leaders, delving into strategies for auditing AI models to ensure fairness, optimal performance, and ethical compliance across diverse organizations. Secure your attendance for this exclusive invite-only event.
Before joining Unity, Acton was the Engine Director at Insomniac Games, which is working on Sony’s new Spider-Man game. Fredriksson also comes from that studio where he made a name for himself squeezing more performance from games dealing with software and hardware bottlenecks. Fredriksson also worked as senior engineer on the Frostbite engine at Electronic Arts’ developer DICE.
