Weta Goes Meta: Unity’s Strategic Acquisition in the Race to the Metaverse
In the long list of things that 2021 will be remembered for, Silicon Valley’s latest buzzword, the Metaverse, will be at the very top. Following a rebranding effort that made headlines around the globe, Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, announced its plan to engineer a new virtual world; a three-dimensional augmentation of the online experiences provided by the internet. In the words of Mark Zuckerburg, the Metaverse is “an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it.” Meta’s announcement confirms what those in Silicon Valley have suspected for years: that the next evolutionary chapter of the internet will come at the foot of virtual and augmented reality. With Meta leading the way, other contenders in Silicon Valley are attempting to position themselves as key contributors to the virtual vision that is the Metaverse.
Given its incredible 45% share of the full feature game engine market, powering the Metaverse is a job perfectly tailored to Unity Technologies. Since its inception in 2004, Unity’s mission has been to provide software developers and creators with an accessible and easy-to-use platform to generate 2D and 3D interactive content. Today, the company has established itself as a driving force in the world of gaming and graphics. According to Forbes, Unity powers “71% of the top 1,000 mobile games and half of all PC and console games. More than 2.5 billion people play games with Unity, and perhaps 4-5 billion devices have Unity-powered software on them.”
As equity markets soared to record heights, Silicon Valley’s fast-growing tech companies looked to mergers and acquisitions to secure relevant tech and talent to compete for a lead role in the development of the Metaverse. Joining the wave of strategic M&As, in early November, Unity announced its plans to acquire Weta Digital, a New Zealand-based visual effects and animation studio, in a deal worth close to $1.63 billion.
While Weta’s founder Peter Jackson might not be a household name outside of the film industry, he holds an extensive list of accolades ranging from six academy awards to production credits on some of the highest-grossing films of all time. Additionally, Weta Digital boasts an illustrious team of artists and engineers responsible for building a sophisticated library of visual effects (VFX) tools for anatomical modelling, facial capture and manipulation, and more. From modern classics like the Lord of the Rings trilogy to blockbusters like Avatar, The Suicide Squad, and Marvel’s Eternals, Weta’s exceptional graphics and VFX technology are featured in some of Hollywood’s biggest films. As per the terms of the deal, Unity will acquire Weta’s software systems, pipeline, and engineering talent.
The dynamic combination of Unity’s extensive platform —whose content has a staggering reach of 2.8 billion monthly active users—with Weta Digital’s proprietary VFX tools and engineering talent, gives rise to incredible synergies. In the words of Weta’s management, “this acquisition is designed to put Weta’s incredibly exclusive and sophisticated visual effects tools into the hands of millions of creators and artists around the world, and once integrated onto the Unity platform, enable the next generation of real-time 3D creativity and shape the future of the Metaverse.”
In past decades, access to world-class tools and talent was reserved for a select few. Unity’s acquisition of Weta means that creators and artists all over the world will now have some of the industry’s most sophisticated graphics and VFX tools at their disposal. This was articulated by Unity’s CEO, John Riccitiello, who claims they “are thrilled to democratize these industry leading tools and bring the genius of Sir Peter Jackson and Weta’s amazing engineering talent to life for artists everywhere.”
As Silicon Valley’s best and brightest compete to lead the development of a virtual world, it is crucial to acknowledge that the rules of this game are like nothing we have ever seen. In the words of Mark Zuckerberg, “the metaverse will not be created by one company. It will be built by creators and developers making new experiences and digital items that are interoperable and unlock a massively larger creative economy than the one constrained by today’s platforms.” Success in the race to the metaverse will not come from generating value for a select few, but from providing value to the everyday artist, creator, and developer, in whose hands lies the virtual future of the internet.