Unreal Engine 4 now FREE, all future updates FREE

[futurefields]

Huge news gang!

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/unrea...e-to-everyone-for-free-gets-gdc-2015-trailer/

“In early 2014, we took the step of making Unreal Engine 4 available to everyone by subscription for $19 per month. We put all of our source code online, available to all who signed up. We flipped the switch and crossed our fingers.

The past year has been a whirlwind for everyone at Epic Games. Our community has grown massively. The quality and variety of creative work being done has been breathtaking. When we asked people to submit their projects to be shown this year at GDC, we had the challenge of picking just eight from over 100 finalists that were all good enough to show.

The state of Unreal is strong, and we’ve realized that as we take away barriers, more people are able to fulfill their creative visions and shape the future of the medium we love. That’s why we’re taking away the last barrier to entry, and going free.

In Epic’s 25 years as an independent company, we have seen no time of greater opportunity for developers than today. Whatever your development aspirations, Epic stands with you, both as a technology provider, and as a fellow game developer counting on UE4 to power our own games.”

 

[blastingcap]

Didn't Unity do this for years?

 

[antihelten]

Didn't Unity do this for years?

Not quite. Unity has two different versions, a free one and a pro one (with the latter costing money), neither of which include royalties. UE4 will apparently have one version, which is free, but where developers will still need to pay royalties.

 

[Hitman928]

.
.

When shipping a game or application, developers pay a 5% royalty on gross revenue after the first $3,000 per product, per quarter.

So, if you're a decently succesful game and your game sells 50,000 copies in it's first quarter:

50,000 * $60 = $3 million
($3 million - $3,000) * 0.05 = $149,850 goes to Epic

Anyone know what the royalty requirement was before?

 

[Pottuvoi]

Not quite. Unity has two different versions, a free one and a pro one (with the latter costing money), neither of which include royalties. UE4 will apparently have one version, which is free, but where developers will still need to pay royalties.

For UE4 you get the source code for free as well, which is quite incredible.

Cannot wait to see what Unity does this GDC, they really have done great things with U5.
It's great time to start making little games.

 

[96Firebird]

Anyone know what the royalty requirement was before?

It's always been 5%...

Source

 

[Hitman928]

It's always been 5%...

Source

Ok, thanks.

 

[Subyman]

Unity's business model is kind of weird to me. Last time I looked they offered a stripped down version (no real time lighting, now I think they offer one light source as real time) for free, but to get the full fledged version its over $1000. Then they offer a bunch of modules for different platforms that are $300+ each. I think where they make most of their money is in the storefront where they take a cut of every third party package sold.

What is nice about the new Unreal plan is that a normal person can jump right in with every feature enabled. To get that same functionality with Unity you have to cough up $1000+. For a small team this could be a burden. I'm unsure if it is $1000 per computer too or if that is per team. I'm thinking it is per license, so per computer. If you have a few people then it adds up. No problem for a big publisher, but for some indie guys it could be a major expense up front. Where a rev-share model would be more doable for them. Unity is tailored to indies, which is why I would think rev-share would be better.

 

[Rakehellion]

Hahahahahha! It's about time they realized charging someone $20 just to play around isn't going to work. Unreal Engine 3 was free so why did they pull this crap?

 

[Rakehellion]

I guess this explains it.

 

[A5]

Hahahahahha! It's about time they realized charging someone $20 just to play around isn't going to work. Unreal Engine 3 was free so why did they pull this crap?

UE3 was not free:

"According to the current EULA, game developers can sell their games by paying Epic the cost of $99 USD, and 25% royalty on UDK related revenue above US$50,000 from all UDK-based games or commercial applications"

And that's for the cut-down UDK version.

 

[Rakehellion]

UE3 was not free:

"According to the current EULA, game developers can sell their games by paying Epic the cost of $99 USD, and 25% royalty on UDK related revenue above US$50,000 from all UDK-based games or commercial applications"

And that's for the cut-down UDK version.

Both 3 and 4 charge royalty fees, but 4 tried to charge you just to download the client whether you made a game or not. And with those prices, it's free for most people.

 

[monstercameron]

is the dx12 renderer ready yet?

 

[Pottuvoi]

is the dx12 renderer ready yet?

Not yet.

From roadmap.

Ongoing collaboration with MSFT
Fall timeframe, being worked on by partners

 

[Paul98]

For those attending GDC

https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/get-your-game-running-on-directx-gdc

 

[Mindtaker]

Thanks for the info! :thumbsup:

 

[psolord]

"Pneuma-A breath of life" is the first Unreal Engine 4 game I saw that really blew me away.

There have been some others, but they were ugly and slow imo. This one runs fine even on my 570.

It's the sheer simplicity and the excellent rendering that I found captivating. It's like the realistic rendering demo, but with gameplay.

It's just too short.

 

[Paul98]

Yeah Just having the tool to make the game doesn't make the art assets for you. That along with good lighting is really what makes things look great.

You will see simple 2d games, simple 3d games, all the way through amazing looking high quality games.

 

[Rakehellion]

Yeah Just having the tool to make the game doesn't make the art assets for you. That along with good lighting is really what makes things look great.

You will see simple 2d games, simple 3d games, all the way through amazing looking high quality games.

Exactly. Which is why it made no sense to charge someone $20 a month to use your engine when their app probably makes $50 a month in sales. Not everyone has a bottomless budget to spend on tools.

 

[Paul98]

Exactly. Which is why it made no sense to charge someone $20 a month to use your engine when their app probably makes $50 a month in sales. Not everyone has a bottomless budget to spend on tools.

Because you are getting a top engine, full source, support and updates. I am sure the reason they stopped is because they know they can make more money if more people release games. So if having it for free gets more people, they have a better change to make a lot more money.

But makes me happy as it saves me 20 bucks a month

 

[Rakehellion]

Because you are getting a top engine, full source, support and updates. I am sure the reason they stopped is because they know they can make more money if more people release games. So if having it for free gets more people, they have a better change to make a lot more money.

But makes me happy as it saves me 20 bucks a month

Yes, and people will spend $0 on the top engine if they can't afford it. This system works best where you don't pay until you make money.