In yet another aggressive move that is sure to expand and consolidate the market share the engine has already won, Epic have gone ahead and made Unreal Engine 4 absolutely free to download. That’s right, you don’t need to pay any money for it, either upfront, or via subscription- the entire full featured suite can be yours for the grand price of zero. Zilch. Nada. $0.
What has not changed, however, is the royalty arrangement, which is how Epic will make money back from Unreal 4- after the first $3,000 earned (per quarter, or $12,000 per year) developers will owe Epic a five percent royalty on gross revenue for each project they develop with Unreal Engine 4.
“The more barriers we can eliminate … the more potential we see in our business,” Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney told Gamasutra. “If a game succeeds, we succeed along with the developer. We profit along with them on it.”
Unity, Crytek… the ball is in your court now.
