Weta Digital’s Technology Division Sold To US Firm
Let me see if I understand this article <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/sir-peter-jackson-to-sell-weta-digital-tech-division-to-us-based-gaming-company/QU367JTO56ARSL5JJ5BCIGQO6U/> correctly: the part of Weta Digital that used to develop the in-house 3D graphics/effects tools that they use in all those movies is being sold to US-based Unity Software. The part that is left will be called “WetaFX”, and will become a customer of Unity for the use of those tools, no longer doing its own development in-house. By the way, I’ve been looking at the Unity site <https://unity.com/>, and it looks like all their products are rentware (subscription-based).
Way back on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:25:42 +1300, I wrote:
Let me see if I understand this article <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/sir-peter-jackson-to-sell-weta-digital-tech-division-to-us-based-gaming-company/QU367JTO56ARSL5JJ5BCIGQO6U/> correctly: the part of Weta Digital that used to develop the in-house 3D graphics/effects tools that they use in all those movies is being sold to US-based Unity Software. The part that is left will be called “WetaFX”, and will become a customer of Unity for the use of those tools, no longer doing its own development in-house.
And now nearly all those engineers taken over from Weta are being let go, according to <https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/11/unity-lays-off-hundreds-of-weta-digital-engineers-as-it-pivots-back-to-games/>. Seems that Unity has “terminated its obligations to provide certain services to Weta FX and also amended certain intellectual property rights between the parties”. Sounds like Weta will be resuming responsibility over its own tool develpment. Either that, or switching to off-the-shelf apps as used by other studios.
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro