And a hundreds of small studios, man. Especially VR, AAA studios wait until VR market would be ready for big productions.
Also… I’m pretty sure those “big partners” would love to have fully dynamic GI implemented for them. For their open worlds. And that’s not happening.
Is Niagara, new material layering workflow or new audio engine are systems only needed by “big partners”? No.
Most of the systems/features serve studios of any size.
It’s truly amusing. UE4 is one of two most universal engines for indies and I’m so often reading “oh, Epic cares only about big partners” 