At this GDC conference, Unity has been discussing the future plans for the Unity engine. The company has confirmed that Unity 5.6 will be the last version of the 5-series cycle, and Unity also gives us a glimpse of the next iteration of the engine.
John Richtitico, Executive Director of Unity Technologies, stated: "Functions like physics rendering, global illumination and codeless IAP are just some of the things that have helped Unity 5 and its community achieve such a small and successful improvement."
Unity 2017 is the successor to Unity 5. It will perform a wide range of optimizations and add more features. Unity promises to further target non-programmers and design a series of functions for designers and artists.
Some of Unity's partners also bring new opportunities for Unity developers in the global market. Xiaomi, one of China's largest Android handset makers, has reached a cooperation agreement with Unity, and Unity developers can directly distribute games to the Xiaomi Game Center, providing western developers with opportunities to enter the Chinese market.
Facebook also announced that its game platform Facebook Gameroom Premium will integrate support for Unity 5.6, including Facebook payment support.
Unity 5.6 will be launched on March 31, 2017, and Unity 2017 will be 4 Moon Phase.