Amazon offers Unity plug-ins to Kindle Fire devs, makes in-app payments possible
Game devs looking to enhance "engagement" (read: monetization) for their mobile titles now have an ally in Amazon. The Bezos-backed company has just made plug-ins available free to Kindle Fire developers using the popular Unity game engine. Now those devs will have access to APIs for In-Game purchasing and GameCircle which, in the latter case, allows for the addition of Achievements, as well as the ability to Whispersync across devices. So, what does this mean for you, the end user? Well, aside from the ability to continue playing from where you last left off on any of the company's tabs, it also brings mobile gaming that much closer to the console experience. But mostly that you can look forward to a future bill filled with micropayments.
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November 20, 2012 09:00 AM Eastern Time
Amazon Makes It Simple for Unity Developers to Add In-App Purchasing and GameCircle Features to Their Games
Free plugins make it easy for Unity developers to add features that increase engagement and monetization for their apps and games
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ: AMZN) – Amazon.com today launched free Unity plugins for their In-App Purchasing and Amazon GameCircle APIs, making it even faster and easier for developers using Unity to add these features into their games and apps. In-App Purchasing and GameCircle improve monetization and increase engagement by allowing developers to add Achievements, Leaderboards, and Whispersync for Games to their games on Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD. To get started, developers can visit the Mobile App Distribution Portal at http://developer.amazon.com.
"Unity is one of the most popular tools for building mobile games," said Mike Frazzini, Director of Amazon Games. "Amazon's In-App Purchasing and GameCircle APIs help developers reach more customers, keep them engaged, and make more money. Every week millions of customers are playing GameCircle enabled games and are able to compare scores and compete against friends. We want to make it as easy as possible for developers to quickly integrate these features and our new, free plugins make it incredibly simple to do so for anyone using Unity."
"Amazon helped to change the way the world looks at the Internet and retail," said David Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies. "We're excited to see them bring their energy to games and especially games built with Unity."
"We recently integrated GameCircle into Temple Run using the GameCircle plugin for Unity. The process was very easy, and incredibly fast," said Keith Sheperd, Founder and CEO of Imangi Studios, and creator of Temple Run. "What would have normally taken days to integrate only took a few hours and it was all very straight forward. We will definitely use the Unity plugin to add GameCircle and In-App Purchasing to our other games."
The Unity game development platform includes a wealth of tools designed to help developers create rich interactive experiences expertly and efficiently. It also creates binaries targeted for specific platforms such as Android, which developers can publish to Kindle Fire and the Amazon Appstore for Android.
Amazon launched an In-App Purchasing API earlier this year, enabling developers to sell digital content and subscriptions within their apps and games. The average In-App Purchasing transaction generates more than twice the revenue of the average paid app transaction. In addition, Amazon recently announced GameCircle APIs, which provide developers with a series of features that encourage engagement within their games, including Achievements, Leaderboards, and Whispersync for Games. GameCircle also displays relevant gameplay data, such as Leaderboards and the number of friends playing a game, front and center within Kindle Fire's games library, creating a unique opportunity for developers to keep customers engaged with their games.
Developers can access the free plugins for these valuable features by visiting http://developer.amazon.com.
