Epic Games lives up to its name with the news yesterday that it will be opening up Unreal Engine 4 to the public with a brand new subscription model. For the price of $19 dollars a month, and a royalty agreement of 5 percent of gross sales, any amateur game developer can use the same engine used to power AAA games like Bioshock Infinite and Borderlands 2.
The move is a step towards staying relevant in an industry full of powerful, low-cost engines like Unity (Kerbal Space Program, Gone Home) and GameMaker: Studio (Hotline Miami, Nidhogg).
“We’re aiming to wipe the slate completely clean,” says Tim Sweeney, founder and technical director of Epic Games. “That’s a bold, new step for Epic, but we think it’s an appropriate one given the new style of the industry. It’s an open and democratic form.”
This is definitely a win for indie developers who now have one of the most powerful 3D game engines available to them. If you want to take a crack at using the new engine, it is available right now.
