Game software engine company Unity has signed a 3 year multi-million dollar contract with CACI International Inc to create digital technology for the US government.

Why should anyone care?

In game development there are two big engines - Unity by Unity and Unreal by Epic Games.

Those who follow game development news closely would be aware that Unreal appears to be leaving Unity in its dust.

You occasionally see an indie hit like survival / builder Valheim or vampire survival / builder V Rising which are made with Unity.

But increasingly developers seem to be turning to Unreal.

Even major developers like CD Projekt Red who have their own in-house engine.

Unity and Unreal are also used in film and television production.

Also there, it's all looking very Unreal.

We have been wondering if the game industry is in danger of becoming a one horse race.

Or already might be.

Epic Games is forty percent owned by Chinese mega-corporation Tencent.

Possibly the US government is also concerned and contracts like this are in part intended to give Unity a leg-up.

Vice reports that some Unity employees object to Defense contracts on the grounds that they sought employment with a game engine company.

They don't want to work for a company which is in the business of supporting war.

It's very easy to understand their objections and some gamers might also wonder about the ethics of buying Unity games.

But this might one of those unfortunate instances where there is legitimately no good alternative and the best you can do is choose the lesser evil.

One of our favourite games is the famously pacificst Subnautica whose developers steadfastly refused to implement any guns into their aquatic sci-fi survival game.

Weapons and killing are longtime staples of both games generally and survival games specifically and throughout development there was a constant stream of demand for lethal guns.

There are many large, dangerous creatures in Subnautica's waters but players can and do learn to deal with them non-violently, like with the game's time-slowing stasis rifle (pictured above).

Subnautica is a Unity game.

We don't love war but are glad that Unity is still in the race.

[ Main Image: Subnautica - Reaper Leviathan and Stasis Rifle. Credit: Unknown Worlds Entertainment via Epic Games Store. ]

References

D'Anastasio, Cecelia (August 11, 2022). Video-Game Company Unity Software Wins Contract to Help US Government Defense. Bloomberg.

Klepek, Patrick (August 24, 2021). Unity Workers Question Company Ethics As It Expands From Video Games to War. Vice.

Subnautica Wiki. Stasis Rifle. (viewed August 13, 2022)

Wikipedia. Epic Games. (viewed August 13, 2022)

Wikipedia. Unity Technologies. (viewed August 13, 2022)