How did Unity evolve as a platform for XR development?

Unity Technologies, now a billion-dollar titan in the realms of gaming and XR, emerged from humble origins in a cozy Copenhagen flat in 2004. The company’s journey to dominating the market with its Unity game engine has been equally fraught with uncertainty and turbulence, like that of XR technologies.

In 2002, a Danish graphics student sought aid on a digital forum, where a Berliner high schooler with backend experience joined him. Serendipity united their game studio dreams. With only a father’s financial cushion and café wages, they created their first game in 2005 – an alien, trapped in a life-support sphere, navigating Earth. Players tilted the world, and the alien rolled, gathering gems and evading CIA capture, utilizing wall-sticking and jumping tricks. The game’s difficulty overshadowed its cutting-edge lighting, and it found little success. Recognizing their talent for building tools...