New terms / EULA, what are we left with if we're on the old license?

Community Community & Industry Discussion
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1

Apparently there was a talk at Unreal Fest which hints very heavily at upcoming license changes to non-game uses.

Personally I’m working on a small training simulator as a part of a thesis (in academia) for a commercial for-profit company using Unreal Engine. I’m not too worried about it in general, as I can keep using the older version to finish what I’m doing and it will be covered by the old license.

However, the wording on the EULA raises a few questions:

If we make changes to this Agreement, you are not required to accept the amended Agreement, and this Agreement will continue to govern your use of any Licensed Technology you already have access to.

However, if we make changes to this Agreement, you will not be allowed to access certain Epic services or download the Licensed Technology unless you have accepted the amended Agreement. If we make changes, we will provide you with notice, such as by sending an email or giving you notice when you next log into an Epic service.

My take on it was, when the new engine version is out, i.e 5.4, and it is covered by a new EULA, then only 5.4 onwards is covered by that license. So, for example, I could keep on using 5.3 with the old license and if I had a project with 5.4, that would be covered by the new license.

But the way this reads, is that if I wanted to i.e keep using the launcher, download marketplace assets (even those already purchased), or even download an existing version, I would have to accept to these terms.

In other words, it would be possible that I could only keep using what I have on my computer already and even in the case where I’d have to redownload 5.3, I would then have to accept the new license to continue.

2

I just mention that GamesFromScratch page has some info asked from Mr Tim itself. I do not know if there are answer for you.

3

There isn’t really much there, only some preliminary info. Doesn’t really help me much, since while I’m “small” and not even getting paid, and the academy is a public institution, the company is neither public, or small, especially after they got bought out.

I’m just wondering how the new license rollout happens, am I supposed to never interface with the launcher, download the marketplace assets, or even touch a newer version (does the new EULA then cover older versions once I’ve accepted it) and so on.

4

I think Epic did the right thing by starting the announcement early, and the draw-back in doing that, is that they don’t have all the exact answers yet.
However, it is very likely (in my opinion) that, if you don’t update past the engine version you’re using now, you won’t have to pay a license to use the editor.

5

It does feel like an afterthought.

If they really want to push this through, they would make staying with an old license as inconvenient as possible. If they don’t, they risk turning 5.3 into a sort of evergreen version for non-game users.

A lot of non-game uses tend to have rather narrow needs, there isn’t necessarily a reason they’d need to use Unreal Engine specifically. But, since it was there and available, why not. Like that artist who they featured at some point using UE to create backgrounds for 2D art.

One of the advantages of the Unreal Engine license was that compared to i.e CryEngine, which bans everything that’s not a game for entertainment purposes, in UE you could, for example, make a game, and then use the same assets in the engine to make an animation or whatever.