Unity 5 game engine will get its last update in March, making way for Unity 2017

Mobile, console and PC game developers who work with the Unity engine will see some changes in how it is labeled in the next year. The company revealed that the last major update for its Unity 5 engine cycle will be released in March 2017, and after that the next version will use a year-based date label, or Unity 2017.

In a blog post, Unity said that the switch to a date-based system for its next major engine release better reflects the company’s recent switch to a subscription model. This was done so it can launch new, but smaller, updates on a faster basis, rather than dump a lot of new features in one big update every several months.

Before that happens, however, the Unity team is working to complete the final big update for the current version. Unity 5.6 is now available in a beta build, and and its biggest feature is that it adds support for the more powerful Vulkan graphics API. The final 5.6 version in March will also add support for apps that use Google Cardboard and the company’s new Daydream VR platform.

The first beta of Unity 2017 will be released in April. The company stated it will have a number of new features, including more tools for developers to create better cinematics in their games, along with a “fully multi-threaded job system” that will be able to better use the features in multi-core processors.