UE4 released! Supports everything under the sun and wants 5% of gross sales for it.

[Jodell88]

The latest announcement out of this week's Game Developer's Conference (GDC) in San Francisco is that Epic Games has made Unreal Engine 4 publicly available! Not only is the engine available today, but licensing starts out much cheaper than with earlier versions of the Unreal Engine... For just $19 USD per month, you can get access to the UE4 engine code-base. UE4 is also Linux compatible.

Epic Games announced that Unreal Engine 4 is available beginning today to game developers. With UE4, Epic Games is trying a new pricing strategy for getting the high quality game engine in the hands of more game developers -- and largely taking aim at indie game developers. For just $19 USD per month, you can use Unreal Engine 4 and have full access to its C++ code-base. The caveat though is besides the small monthly fee, Epic Games is after a 5% cut of gross sales of the UE4-based game.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTYzNjY

 

[Bateluer]

Is a % of gross sales a standard thing with engine licensing?

 

[micaturbo]

They mention their old UDK licensing terms in the FAQ.

"25% of net revenue after you take home $50,000"

 

[Jodell88]

They mention their old UDK licensing terms in the FAQ.

"25% of net revenue after you take home $50,000"

Dayum! Being an engine developer seems more lucrative than a games developer.

 

[Fire&Blood]

That got Crytek wanting the last word, as of today they offer Cryengine for $9.90 per month, 0 royalty fees for indies: http://www.cryengine.com/news/crytek-announces-its-cryengine-as-a-service-program

 

[BrightCandle]

5% of net revenue is pretty reasonable considering what you get. That isn't going to sink a development and it will save a tonne of time, not to mention the fact you can modify the engine as well. Its mostly a pretty good deal.

 

[FalseChristian]

What's 5% of gross sales if the game sells well because of using UE4? Id software should be doing the same to encourage OpenGL's use. Once that happens we can all switch to Windows XP or Linux and be done with Microsoft.

 

[BrightCandle]

And crytek counters with 9.99 a month and no royalties. Wow its a great time to be an indy, great engines just got a lot cheaper.

 

[FaceToKeyboard]

Oh man, my friends and I just heard about this; super exciting time to be a game dev/game dev hobbyist!

And thank the heavens - no more having to work via UnrealScript...

Although it looks like Blueprint will be good enough for me to crank out a quick prototype!