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Epic Games has made Unreal Engine 4 free for anyone to download and use.
Epic announced the news earlier this week in a post on the official Unreal Engine blog. The $19/month subscription service the company debuted last year is no more, and former subscribers will receive a $30 credit for the Unreal Engine Marketplace. All future updates will be added at no extra cost as well.
That said, Epic will still require a 5 per cent cut from gross revenue beyond the first $3,000 earned – per product, per quarter.
The past year has been a whirlwind for everyone at Epic Games. Our community has grown tremendously. The quality and variety of creative work being done has been breathtaking. When we asked people to submit their projects to be shown this year at GDC, we had the challenge of picking just 8 from over 100 finalists that were all good enough to show,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said.
The state of Unreal is strong, and we’ve realized that as we take away barriers, more people are able to fulfil their creative visions and shape the future of the medium we love. That’s why we’re taking away the last barrier to entry, and going free.”
The download features the the full set of tools used by Epic, and includes all of the C++ source code. It also provides video tutorials, documentation, game templates, as well as access to UE’s development forums, wiki, and marketplace where devs can purchase or sell their work.
Here’s the announcement video:
