Microsoft's buyout of Minecraft developer Mojang is certainly the biggest news of the month so far, but another potential acquisition in the future may be just as significant. VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi recently posted an editorial about game engine maker Unity Technologies' plans to possibly sell the company for anywhere between $1 and $2 billion.
This isn't the first time that the San Francisco-based company played around with this idea. Last year, Amazon was allegedly set to purchase Unity for $650 million. There were other potential buyers at the time as well, including Microsoft, coincidentally. When Unity cofounder Nicholas Francis left in February 2013, he sold his shares to an outside bidder; since then, Unity has considered a sale of the entire company as a sensible proposition.
The Unity engine is a powerful tool that has served as the backbone for many games in the last few years, inluding Thomas Was Alone, Temple Run, Slender: The Eight Pages, Rust, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty!, and more. Any company that would want to buy Unity Technologies would of course have to contend with rival Epic Games and its Unreal engine.
There is at least one source who says that the rumors of a potential Unity sale are not true. In any case, we'll be sure to keep our ears open in case any new details surface.
