Today Unity Technologies purchased the rights to the visual scripting solution Bolt 1 & 2 from Ludiq. The asset is already under the Unity name on the asset store and community and development efforts will be shift to Unity Montreal going forward.
Details from the Ludiq blog:
Ludiq is proud to announce that its flagship visual scripting solution Bolt has been acquired by Unity Technologies. This acquisition will empower Unity developers worldwide with a production-ready visual authoring tool that helps artists, designers and programmers collaborate on their game or application. Thanks to Unity’s involvement, Bolt will benefit from a wealth of resources and experience in middleware development, while its users can continue to rely on the same level of quality support and trusted new releases they had come to expect.
As the lead developer of Bolt to this day, I am thrilled about the potential of putting this tool in the hands of more creators and allowing them to concretize their ideas in a visual way. Bolt started as a solo endeavor nearly four years ago, and over time, our team and community grew to welcome thousands of visual thinkers. Today, passing the torch to Unity means Bolt will enter an exciting new phase of its life. While letting go of a project you love is never easy, I have met the amazing people at Unity who will carry it forward and I am confident that Bolt is in the best of hands.
We are working closely with Unity Montreal to ensure a seamless transition. Support for Bolt 1 will continue uninterrupted and development of Bolt 2 is progressing on track. We want to make sure there are no sudden or unexpected changes for existing users. In the meantime, we want to address any question or concern you may have.
It is important to realize that Unity have just acquired Bolt, not the entire company for other technologies such as Peek. There are more details of the acquisition over on the Unity forums. With Bolt 2 currently in development and offered as a free upgrade by Ludiq, people are obviously concerned if this is still the case, rest assured it is.
Ludiq pledged to make Bolt 2 free for users of Bolt. Will Unity honor this pledge?
Yes. Bolt 2 will be free for current Bolt users as well as those who purchase Bolt on the Asset Store before 11:59:59 pm PST on May 31, 2020. Bolt users will receive an individual license for Bolt 2 when it becomes available.
You can learn more about the acquisition in the video below.