Mozilla and Unity are announcing new deployment tools bringing Unity-authored games to the Web without the need for plugins, made possible thanks to Mozilla-pioneered technologies including WebGL, a Web graphics library and asm.js, a supercharged subset of JavaScript. Unity’s WebGL add-on will be made available with the release of Unity 5.0 later this year.

Millions of Unity developers will have the opportunity to export their Unity content directly to the Web without the friction of plugins while maintaining smooth and silky gameplay. To demonstrate this technology in action, Unity and Mozilla are showcasing a preview of the popular game, Dead Trigger 2, running in Firefox at near-native speed.

“Unity is one of the most innovative companies in gaming so their commitment to WebGL and asm.js really strengthens support for Mozilla’s vision of a high performance, plugin-free Web,” said Vlad Vukicevic, Engineering Director at Mozilla and inventor of WebGL. “This development unlocks the full potential of the Web for Unity developers.”

Unity developers will be pleased to hear that their games will work well in all modern desktop browsers that fully support WebGL, with superior performance coming from browsers such as Firefox that specifically optimize for asm.js.

“We believe WebGL and asm.js will be driving the future of gaming on the Web. We’re happy to see the platform mature and look forward to helping to drive its evolution,” said Ralph Hauwert, Senior Developer, Unity Technologies. “Our work with Mozilla has been incredibly productive. Together we have overcome many challenges, so that today we can announce the WebGL deployment add-on for Unity that will provide the best possible experience that our developers have come to expect.”

“One of the questions game developers ask us most often is whether Unity will support WebGL and asm.js,” said Martin Best, Game Platform Strategist at Mozilla. “We’re happy that this support is now a reality and look forward to a new era of high-quality games on the Web.”

Unity’s Web plugin is one of the most installed plugins on the Web and so this has clear positive impact on developers. With WebGL technology, developers will be able to market their games more easily by providing just a Web link and without any additional plugin to download. That means developers can expect more users to play their games. Using open Web technologies also provides an easier path to publish and update games over multiple platforms and test new features.

This effort demonstrates Mozilla and Unity’s firm commitment to the Web and we appreciate Unity’s support of WebGL and asm.js.

This is a big day for evolving the Web as a platform for gaming and we are very excited to see what experiences developers will bring to the Web using this powerful technology.