Unity announces native game engine support for Windows on ARM

What you need to know

• Unity shared its commitment to bring its Unity Player to Windows on ARM natively.
• The tool will allow developers to target Windows on ARM devices when creating games.
• Unity did not share a timeframe for when it will release a version of Unity Player that’s optimized for Windows on ARM.

Microsoft’s commitment to Windows on ARM continues to grow. The tech giant recently merged its Surface Pro 9 lineup to include ARM-based and Intel-based 2-in-1s. It’s also released versions of Visual Studio 2022 17.4 and .NET 7 that run natively on ARM. Earlier this year, Microsoft rolled out ARM64EC, which lets developers optimize their apps for ARM incrementally. Now, Unity has shared plans to jump on the Windows on ARM bandwagon.

Today, Unity confirmed its commitment to bring the United Player to Windows on ARM natively. Once available, the tool will allow developers to target Windows on ARM devices for both current and future titles. Doing so with the native-optimized Unity Player will deliver native performance for the games.

Unity is an extremely popular development platform that’s used across a range of game titles within the industry. Native support could convince developers to target Windows on ARM devices in the future.

While Unity has confirmed a commitment to bring a native version of Unity Player to Windows on ARM, it has not shared a planned release date.

Unity is only the latest organization to embrace Windows on ARM. Spotify and Adobe have both optimized their apps for Windows on ARM.

In other ARM news, Microsoft launched its new Windows on ARM Developer Kit today. Previously known as Project Volterra, the PC runs on a Snapdragon 8cx Gen3 processor and has 32GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage. While it can be purchased by anyone who is interested, the Windows Developer Kit 2023 is designed for developers to optimize their apps for ARM.