Unity Software today announced the acquisition of the technology division of director Peter Jackson's Weta Digital company.

The tools that brought Gollum to life in 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' have a new home. Unity Software, the makers behind the Unity game engine, have acquired the technology division for $1.625 billion. The goal is to make the tools available to creators all over the world through a cloud-based workflow with software-as-a-service pricing. Ubity's ultimate goal is to enable the 'next-generation of realtime 3D content for the metaverse.'

Weta Digital is best known for its Academy Award-winning visual effects. It's titles include Avatar, Game of Thrones, Planet of the Apes, Wonder Woman, and much more. Founded in 1993 by director Peter Jackson, the company hit it big with the critically and commercially successful 'The Lord of the Rings' film trilogy.

“Weta Digital’s tools created unlimited possibilities for us to bring to life the worlds and creatures that originally lived in our imaginations," said Peter Jackson in a statement to Variety. "Together, Unity and Weta Digital can create a pathway for any artist, from any industry, to be able to leverage these incredibly creative and powerful tools. Offering aspiring creatives access to Weta Digital’s technology will be nothing short of game changing, and Unity is just the company to bring this vision to life.”

Weta's teams will continue to exist as a standalone company known as WetaFX. With Unity taking over the technology and tools, the rest of the teams can focus on creative and business ventures. The 275 engineers employed in the VFX tools and technology will join Unity's Create Solutions division.