Epic Games are enjoying a very busy period with the official announcement of their upcoming game engine, Unreal Engine 5, during yesterday's Summer Games Fest stream. The engine promises to make developers' jobs much easier, especially in developing titles for the next-generation of gaming platforms. Its predecessor is already being used widely among indie studios and managed to help countless developers produce their titles, and the studio decided to make it free-to-use until you reach a certain revenue milestone.
Of course, this is major news to anyone who wanted to dive into game development but shied away all this time due to the fees required to acquire the Unreal Engine 4 license among other costs. Epic Games decided to treat developers with a pleasant surprise and make their renowned engine free-to-use till the game created by it commercially gains over $1 million in revenue. Once a studio's creation reaches that point, they will have to pay Epic Games for the usage of their engine.
Understandably, the indie development community was ecstatic, and some of them even described it as "a game-changer" for small studios trying to break into the scene.
I am so happy that we are already using UE at @BumblebeeMind This is a game changer for small indie developers!
— Lars Magnus Fylke (@larsmagnusfylke) May 13, 2020
The positive reception continues.
Why is my entire gamedev feed not screaming about how UE4 is now free-to-use until your revenue passes ONE. MILLION. DOLLARS.
— Megan Fox (@glassbottommeg) May 13, 2020
That is holy geeze good terms. Like. Holy geeze. https://t.co/d9ehT6qAX2 pic.twitter.com/X2IqbtRjyw
How much impact do you think this will bring to the indie development scene? Will it encourage more developers to create their titles, who before shied away from it due to the expenses? Let us know your thoughts on Epic Games' latest decision in the comments section down below.
