Unity acquires Weta Digital for $1.6bn
November 10, 2021
By Nik Roseveare
Unity, the video game software company, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Weta Digital, co-founded by Hollywood director Peter Jackson, for $1.6 billion (€1.38bn).
Unity has specifically acquired its artist tools, core pipeline, intellectual property, and award-winning engineering talent. The Academy Award-Winning VFX service teams of Weta Digital will continue as a standalone entity known as WetaFX and will become Unity’s largest customer in the Media and Entertainment space.
Weta is known for creating CGI movie characters such as Avatar‘s Neyriti, Caesar in Planet of the Apes and, perhaps most famously, Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
In a statement, Unity said: “By combining the industry leading VFX tools and technical talent from the incredible team at Weta, plus the deep development and real-time knowledge within Unity, we aim to deliver tools to unlock the full potential of the metaverse.”
“Together, Unity and Weta Digital can create a pathway for any artist, from any industry, to be able to leverage these incredibly creative and powerful tools,” Jackson added in a statement.