Epic Makes Its Unreal Engine Free To All, But Requires 5% Royalties On Successful Titles

It looks like it’s not just going to be the next Unreal Tournament that’ll be free: Epic has just culled the $19/mo subscription fee off of its famed game engine, Unreal Engine 4.

“If you love something, set it free.”

This is a huge move for Epic. It’s not so much the fact that $19/mo is a “lot” to spend on development software, but with UE4 free-to-use, it means anyone can test the engine and its tools out without much thought, and no strings attached. It’s ideal for the seasoned developer who might want to transition or the indie one who’s just starting to dip their toes into game development.

In the above video, Epic’s Tim Sweeney says that the entire engine is free, although if your product ends up generating more than $3,000 per quarter, you’ll need to pay 5% of what you earn to Epic for royalties. That means Epic’s success hinges on your success, and whether you’re a massive development house or an indie dev coding in their bedroom, everyone will pay a fair fee for use of the engine.

How times have changed. Now you can make use of one of the industry’s most robust game engines (if not the most robust) for a grand sum of $0 – until you actually begin making money off of it yourself. Awesome.