Unity Software, a game design software developer, is reportedly preparing to spin off its China unit in a bid to expand its business in the world’s largest gaming market, according to people familiar with the matter. Unity is looking for strategic investors to partner with in talks to value the business at more than $1 billion. Some companies now want to expand their game production software into new technologies, such as metaverse, and Unity has that in mind.
Unity entered China in 2012, and many popular games in China use the Unity game engine, such as “Glory of Kings” and “Original Gods.” Epic Games is a competitor to Unity, which also develops the popular Unreal Engine 5 engine, and Epic Games is backed by Tencent.
Unity has another reason for spinning off its China business; it wants its software for more areas, such as smart city modeling, industrial design and metaverse, two people familiar with the matter said. Potential investors in discussions with Unity have already invested a lot of money in the metaverse space.
Unity China CEO Junbo Zhang has been planning a spin-off for at least a year, and the spin-off has accelerated as Unity shares have fallen 80 percent since November 2021, people familiar with the matter said. Zhang Junbo said in an interview last month that he would hire thousands of engineers in China in the next few years, and that he would expand the Beijing and Guangzhou branches in addition to his Shanghai headquarters.
