Unity: Devs can "make a living" from Asset Store

Unity Technologies CCO Nicholas Francis claims that Unity's users can "make a living" from its Asset Store.

The store was launched last November in an effort to give Unity users a venue to buy and sell textures, 3D models, sound files and others tools to help make their games.

"If you're trying to make a game there's such a massive skill-set that you need to have - you need modelers, you need animators, you need programmers, you need sound guys, you need music," said Francis during the opening keynote of Unite 11.

"This is okay if you're a massive company, but if you're a smaller team it's really nice not to have to fill all of those shoes."

There are now 1860 asset packages on the store, and while some of those are available for free total sales for September reached $140,000.

"We're very happy about this, because it's a very real indicator that this thing is actually working, that our users are making money by making Unity assets," Francis added.

He also claimed that the users spending time and effort making more complex tools can "make a living" from the revenue. The top seller in September made $20,000, with the top 15 making an average of $5,000 each.

Unity is responding to the climbing revenues by introducing a more efficient payment system: instead of Western Union money transfers, users will now receive automated monthly payments through PayPal.

The release of Unity 3.5 will also integrate the Asset Store into the engine on a more fundamental level. When users search or browse their project files, relevant content from the store can be accessed at any time through collapsible tabs at the bottom of the screen.

Unite 11 is currently taking place at San Francisco's Masonic Centre.