Chances are if you play video games you’ve played a game made in the Unreal Engine. Released in 1998 by Epic Games, the Unreal Engine has been used in a massive list of games including titles such as Borderlands, Batman: Arkham City and Mortal Kombat 9.
Yesterday, Unreal Engine 4 became free for any user with the following new royalty agreement:
“When you ship a game or application, you pay a 5% royalty on gross revenue after the first $3,000 per product, per quarter. It’s a simple arrangement in which we succeed only when you succeed.”
This opens up Unreal Engine 4 as a development tool that anyone from indie developer to college lecturer can use; it also continues along the trend of game engines opening up and making games development more accessible.
Previously Epic made the Unreal Development Kit free but this announcement brings with it the free release of a fully working AAA development tool with all its features in addition to the many and frequent future updates the tools are sure to receive.
I’ll be checking out the toolsets tutorials and free assets and I love to know if you do in the comments.
You can read the full announcement here.