Can’t think any better logical explanation behind all these acquisitions.
Unreal became available to all and then free because of the good vision of Tim. I am concerned what will happen after Tim retires. Hope he sets things for the future too so that nothing will happen will happen here like at ID tech after founder John Carmack left.
John Carmack had promised that ID tech 5 (doom engine) and future versions will also be open sourced like 1-4, as it is the vision of the company. But once he left company they stopped licensing the engine to other companies and also the tradition of open sourcing previous version of the engine. (1)