"Unity is currently relatively cheap."
Following Apple's courtroom defeat to Epic Games, as part of which the former can no longer collect fees on purchases made outside the App Store and restrict developers from directing users to external purchasing options, the tech giant has made a couple of out-of-character moves in what appears to be an attempt to offset its losses in the mobile game market caused by the ruling.
In just one week, a company that has never dabbled in video games before, preferring instead to collect its 30% cut without direct, hands-on involvement, purchased its first-ever game studio, RAC7, the two-person team behind Sneaky Sasquatch, and was reported to be planning the launch of a dedicated video game app, expected to come preinstalled on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV later this year.
Pondering what Apple's next move might be to maintain its dominance in the market is industry analyst and self-described "Video Games Professor" Joost van Dreunen, who suggested that the company could be eyeing a potential acquisition of Unity Technologies, the company behind the Unity engine and Epic's biggest rival in the game development field.

In his latest write-up, van Dreunen predicts that Apple may eventually purchase Unity, the engine behind over 70% of mobile games, which was also fully integrated into Apple Vision Pro at launch. He argues that such a deal would allow Apple to block Unity from building its own direct-to-consumer infrastructure, eliminating a potential competitor, while also undercutting Epic by offering a fully integrated toolchain for mobile game development and monetization.
Additionally, van Dreunen notes that "payment providers like Xsolla present an additional threat to Apple in this context as they have made it part of their business model to enable game makers' direct-to-consumer initiatives," so offering content creators more options and investing in its ecosystem "would benefit both consumers and Apple."
As an added bonus, the analyst says, Unity is relatively cheap at the moment, with a market cap of about $8.9 billion, down from $56 billion at its peak during the COVID-19 pandemic – a drop in a bucket for Apple with its ~$3 trillion net worth. Even so, should the acquisition actually happen, it would be Apple's largest purchase in its history, surpassing the $3 billion acquirement of headphone maker Beats.
That said, I'd like to emphasize once again that this is not an insider report but rather a prediction made by an analyst – with even van Dreunen himself describing it as "spicy" – and as such should be seen as nothing more than a brain-scratching "What if?" scenario. At the time of writing, neither Apple nor Unity has responded to the prediction, leaving Apple's next move to maintain its position in the mobile gaming industry uncertain.
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In his latest write-up, van Dreunen predicts that Apple may eventually purchase Unity, the engine behind over 70% of mobile games, which was also fully integrated into Apple Vision Pro at launch. He argues that such a deal would allow Apple to block Unity from building its own direct-to-consumer infrastructure, eliminating a potential competitor, while also undercutting Epic by offering a fully integrated toolchain for mobile game development and monetization.

as someone who uses it for pc games a lot it would suck if a company like apple would own it.

dammmm I really wish this is not true! :(

as someone who uses it for pc games a lot it would suck if a company like apple would own it.

This is just a prediction from someone's substack. No actual evidence towards it.

dammmm I really wish this is not true! :(

as someone who uses it for pc games a lot it would suck if a company like apple would own it.

I think I might be considering to buy out Disney. Might as well say that.

Sorry, already put an offer in this morning so it's off the table now. You'll just have to trust me on this.

On the other hand, this doesn't look like a great play for Apple and I wouldn't put much thought into this rumor or speculation.

I think I might be considering to buy out Disney. Might as well say that.

Thread title is misleading as hell

Did you not read the article or quotes as they clearly says it's speculation by one person?

yes that is also why I said wish this is not true, as in its a rumor / idea.
Not a fact.

The analyst is making their own Predictions. Its value is nothing more than me rambling on a corner of the forum :p

I wish I was paid to say whatever is crossing my mind

As a resetera.com WORLD EXCLUSIVE, I can reveal that I am considering buying Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. I will use my extraordinarily large supply of Bison dollars, which will be worth 5 British Pounds each, once Bison finally comes through on his King Charles abduction plans.

Not even Pachter was this misleading

Would be very surprised if they did this and even if they tried I think it would get blocked.

Apple absolutely sucks at supporting software.

I hope they don't because this would be one of the worst acquisitions, which would be bad for many industries. It's not like the current US gov would stop them either.

So this is like a blog post just speculating?

Speculation shouldn't be down as news.
Otherwise any of us could fire up a substation, write out some wild fanboy hoping and have it served up as a thread by another user.

Fair enough. Just the phrasing 'I wish this is not true' in this context generally refers to something that has happened/is happening.

On the other hand, this doesn't look like a great play for Apple

And Epic can't complain, because they're doing the exact same thing with their storefront -- games on the Unreal Engine have their engine royalties waived on copies sold through the EGS.

But yeah, this is likely just speculation.

I wish I was paid to say whatever is crossing my mind

I think Apple has been a huge net negative for games, so I hope this is completely false.
Then again, it can't be much worse than Unity's current leadership.

Additionally, van Dreunen notes that "payment providers like Xsolla present an additional threat to Apple in this context as they have made it part of their business model to enable game makers' direct-to-consumer initiatives," so offering content creators more options and investing in its ecosystem "would benefit both consumers and Apple."

This is a blogpost from an adjunct professor, I don't think he's getting paid.