Unity Technologies extinguishes Adobe Flash
The maker of 3D video game tools says it will no longer sell Flash deployment licenses.
Adobe Flash has received a kick in the pants from yet another company.
Unity Technologies, which makes 3D video tools that allow developers to create Web-based games, announced Wednesday that it will no longer support Flash.
"We will keep the current Flash deployment feature set functioning throughout the Unity 4.x cycle and will include bug fixes made in upcoming Unity 4.x iterations," Unity CEO David Helgason said in a blog post Wednesday. "We do not plan, however, to make further significant investments in deployment to the platform."
In his blog, Helgason cited Adobe's perceived lack of commitment to developing Flash as a reason for Unity Technologies' decision. As evidence, he referred to the death of Flash Player Next, the instability of the latest Flash Player updates, and Adobe's efforts to transfer workers to other projects.
The Unity CEO also criticized Adobe for unveiling and then cancelling a revenue-sharing model for Flash programmers, a move that he felt took away some of the trust in Flash as a reliable and evolving format.
Offering an alternative to Flash, Unity has been pushing its Unity Web Player, which Helgason said has received heavy demand from programmers.
"Developers are moving away from Flash, and while Flash publishing has gotten little traction, our own Unity Web Player has seen unprecedented growth in recent months," Helgason said, adding that the software is installed on more than 200 million computers and that a third of Facebook gamers use it.