Unity has announced Unity 7, the next version of its game development engine, notably without the controversial pricing changes that damaged the company's reputation with developers in 2023. The announcement emphasises backwards compatibility, promising that existing projects, skills and code will carry forward smoothly, alongside new tools that let collaborators using third-party software contribute to projects without needing full editor access. Unity has also taken a notably cautious approach to generative AI features, stressing that they are optional rather than central to the new engine, in contrast to rival Epic's more assertive push around AI integration in Unreal Engine 6.

Unity 7 is described as a "direct continuation" of Unity 6, with early beta testing due in December 2026 and a full release expected in early 2027. Key technical changes include CoreCLR as the default scripting backend for faster startup and shader compilation, a new lighting system called Surface Cache GI, and a new command line interface and public API allowing external developers to validate assets and push builds remotely. The engine also introduces a "model context protocol" enabling AI coding agents to connect directly to Unity, though senior vice president Matt Smith stressed that being "built for that world doesn't mean built to require it."