Unity has announced a licensing agreement with Nintendo that will allow both the Japanese giant and third-party developers to utilise the engine for Wii U games.

The company claims it is currently working with Nintendo to create a Wii U deployment add-on for the engine to enable its base of 1.2 million registered developers to deliver games for the new system.

Wii Unity

It's a deal Unity believes will open up Wii U to a new breed of developer, with those mastering the mobile social scene in particular now able to take their titles to a whole new consumer group.

"The rapid growth of incredible games coming from the experienced and talented developers in our community makes Unity the new development platform of choice for AAA console developers," said Unity CEO David Helgason.

"Nintendo's unfettered access to Unity will produce a wealth of insanely good games from knowledgeable Nintendo developers and the Wii U deployment add-on will create an amazing opportunity for our massive community of developers to showcase their incredible creativity on one of the most anticipated and innovative gaming platforms to date."

Unity claims its Wii U deployment options will launch in 2013. You can read what Pocket Gamer editor-in-chief Kristan Reed thinks of the console's chances here.