The Unreal Engine from Epic has powered what feels like the majority of big hitting titles over the last 8 years and now Epic have made the not-so-surprising decision to stop selling the product and rather just give it away.
In the world of freemium games I guess it’s no surprise that other software will start taking the same line and give away their product with the goal of recouping the money in other ways in the longer term.
For Epic the catch really isn’t much of a catch. You can download the engine and the entire source code plus a wide variety of assets such as environments, characters, weapons and many more for absolutely nothing. You can use all the assets for as long as you like without paying anything and the only time you will hand Epic any cash what so ever is if you release something commercially and it manages to gross over $3000 per product, per quarter.
So you have to be profitable before you pay Epic a cent and then once you are breaking that level you only have to pay Epic 5% royalty on the gross revenue. Maybe there is some funny financial magic happening here but to me that seems like an incredible deal and a very smart move by Epic.
I’ve downloaded the launcher now and I’m hoping to be releasing the next gen block buster, Lagz of War, to resounding success next year.
So if you want to try it out just head over to the Unreal Engine site and click the big blue button in the top right corner… it took me 3 pages to find that button.
Last Updated: March 3, 2015
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 08:15
Haha. Lagz of War.
I can’t wait to see the armour Geoff will be wearing. ;P Of Darryn’s I’m a bit more cautious.
Rock789
March 3, 2015 at 08:20
Borat man-kini?!
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 08:21
I’m thinking a Batmankini O_o
Rock789
March 3, 2015 at 08:23
No words… o_O
Blood Emperor Trevor
March 3, 2015 at 08:23
I’m sure it’ll be character-class appropriate. Wondering what those are though.
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 08:25
I’m not going to start venturing a guess on this. Will wait for other, braver, souls.
Ranting Raptor
March 3, 2015 at 08:26
Troll (Community)
Dwarf (Darryn)
Ninja (Geoff… STEREOTYPING!!!!)
Disgruntled Warrior (Gavin)
Rogue (Zoe)
Cabbage Porra (Do I have to even explain?)
Tentacle Monster (Umar)
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 08:28
If Umar gets a spot I think Rince needs to as well. He’s practically Lazygamer furniture.
Blood Emperor Trevor
March 3, 2015 at 08:36
He’s an evil hall monitor.
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 08:38
Haha. Lucky him, it could’ve been worse.
Rainman
March 3, 2015 at 08:35
Is the dwarf not normally the guy with the hammer?
Blood Emperor Trevor
March 3, 2015 at 08:37
That’s true, maybe a halfling bard or insane gnome alchemist.
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 08:37
Hammersteyn might be too forgiving.
Hammersteyn
March 3, 2015 at 08:46
True, But i’m taller than Admiral so let him be the dwarf XD
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 08:48
Admiral Chief the dwarf.
I shall be the pirate. 😉
Admiral Chief
March 3, 2015 at 09:06
I’m the pirate, shush you
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 09:09
Fine, I’ll be the necromancer. Suits me ;P
Admiral Chief
March 3, 2015 at 09:18
I though you’d be the make-up artist?
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 09:33
My eyes naturally look like Death’s
Admiral Chief
March 3, 2015 at 09:40
Really? Well I’m officially no longer scared of death
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 09:40
haha
HvR
March 3, 2015 at 09:44
Is it because you are dead inside?
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrf6cqON5P1qao4ov.jpg
Admiral Chief
March 3, 2015 at 09:46
LOOOOOL
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 09:54
Natural damn it!
That guy can’t even grow a beard.
More like this
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/100/c/3/death_mask_by_psychopat6666-d7dhsf5.jpg
Admiral Chief
March 3, 2015 at 09:06
Yes but you are huge, I’m normal size
Blood Emperor Trevor
March 3, 2015 at 09:12
That’s what she said? huehuehue
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 09:12
Ouch
Admiral Chief
March 3, 2015 at 09:19
So Deon got laid? CELEBRATION!
Hammersteyn
March 3, 2015 at 09:12
XD
Hammersteyn
March 3, 2015 at 08:45
+1 stat boost me XD
Brady miaau
March 3, 2015 at 09:03
Mage?
Sgt. M
March 3, 2015 at 08:47
Llew will have a 7 shooter pistol to start with?
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 08:48
He wouldn’t want it any other way 😀
HvR
March 3, 2015 at 09:53
I heard there is Rise of the MSSA DLC planned as well.
Xcalibersa
March 3, 2015 at 08:21
I thought they did this awhile ago? Either way, another nail in the head for the cryengine.
Ranting Raptor
March 3, 2015 at 08:22
So not 100% completely free then? More like a kind of micro transaction? 😛
Ok but jokes aside this is pretty rad
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 08:24
I think it’s much better to use it this way. It encourages development, especially indie, and if the company then makes enough money to actually afford to pay for the engine, they do.
It’s also going to be way more profitable for the Unreal peoples. If one game goes big, 5% is a sh#^load of royalty.
Ranting Raptor
March 3, 2015 at 11:11
Lol. Hence why I said it’s rad 🙂
Lardus-Resident Perve
March 3, 2015 at 08:28
Well well…this is interesting indeed. Always wanted to work on a game…
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 08:29
*halfway into modelling first unique character decides it’s too much effort*
;P
Blood Emperor Trevor
March 3, 2015 at 08:35
All that effort spent on make-up wasted!
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 08:35
I know!
Lardus-Resident Perve
March 3, 2015 at 08:43
Leisure Beard Lardus – Adventures at Teazers…cumming soon!
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 08:44
Haha
AnimeAfrica
March 3, 2015 at 08:39
Ive been using UE 4.6 and 4.7 and its alot user friendly with everything incl Blueprints ect
Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event
March 3, 2015 at 09:17
Can I pre-order or will it be early access? Also will there be a Darryn character in a Ghostbuster outfit that I can shoot at?
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 09:40
At least you can be assured it won’t be riddled with micro-transactions. Not with this community backing it.
Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event
March 3, 2015 at 09:46
I can see my steam review now.
Nearly killed the final boss Mecha Mannion then Eskom cut my power.
11/10 would try again.
😛
HvR
March 3, 2015 at 09:49
Darryn boss is like Hitler in Wolfenstein 3D. If you shoot him long enough his Ghostbuster outfit falls off and he chases you in his Mankinni.
This is so gonna be banned in Australia.
Captain JJ the damned
March 3, 2015 at 09:52
LOL
Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event
March 3, 2015 at 09:53
The ideas are flowing. We NEED to make this!
Also for generic enemies we can have Dino riding Grammar Nazi’s and Actual Trolls that troll you as they attack you.
HvR
March 3, 2015 at 09:55
Mentioned above some MSSA DLC, when the main boss (The one who shall not be named) hits you you get served.
Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event
March 3, 2015 at 09:58
And make sure it is a free DLC. We are Lagz not EA or Ubisoft!
Francois Knoetze
March 3, 2015 at 10:02
Very Very excited for this. As game development is a direction I would like to go into the future with this is the best news EVER!!! My PLAN FOR WORLD DOMINATION IS BEING REALISED!!! MUAHAHAHAHAH!! cough cough…there there Mr Kitty. Daddy loves you…(chair rotates away)
DJSkippy
March 3, 2015 at 10:46
I was using the Unity engine for visualizations a while back. At the time i was researching CryEngine, Unity and Unreal but Unity was the only one i could use for free (without the cool water and translucent effects) now i am going to definitely import my visualization projects into Unreal.
Danie Nell
March 3, 2015 at 11:20
I find Unity a lot easier to work with than Unreal. But the free version of Unity is so limited.
But there is apparently going to be a huge announcement today from Unity too….Unity Pro for free maybe?
DJSkippy
March 3, 2015 at 11:30
YES PLEASE!! that would make my day. I had Unity pro while i worked at my previous company and I enjoyed it for sure.