compare them to other games, are they more “complex” or more “better looking”?
Yes, Yes
All I see in Unity is badly made flappy bird clones. That’s why labor rights so no random person can claim that is a true programmer 
Like others have already mentioned Unity was accessible to everyone many years before UDK (and then UE4) came out.
I don’t understand why do people even bother trying to create mobile games with UE4, UE4 is perfect only for the same type of games that EPIC is making themselves, if you try anything different you’ll struggle and probably quit.
I don’t know about that, personally I can setup a player controller in Godot Engine faster and much more readable and maintainable than in BP.
that’s cause it’s easier to see graphic than logic.
don’t get me wrong, I love Unreal, I love the editor and the particle system in particular but you can’t deny that if you need a prototype it will take far less doing it in unity than in unreal.
and for the mobile world there are still too many missing features.
Yes, much mobile platform integrations are missing, I mentioned at my previous post. You can’t outperform supergrid + some quick blueprint logic for prototyping though 
I think the market positions can be explained much more easily just using basic market facts; technology doesn’t go into it.
Unity had a head start of several years for the “free to try” tier. Of course it has a bigger market among the people who don’t have a lot of money to spend right now.
Another measurement might be “how much money total do the games on the platform make?” and if that’s it, Unreal might actually be ahead, because of its AAA pay-for roots.
Unreal Engine is currently actually easier/cheaper to get started with for many developers, so it has that going for it.
I do a few games with it. I have good remember like the feeling you have with the first girlfriend. 
I know right, its 2016 we should be able to put a video file in our games and play it back in real time, Unity already has tons of solutions for this kind of stuff in their marketplace
Actually I do it all the time, whether offline from Content folder or in online streaming, and without the need of a plugin, everything with the UE4’s embedded MediaPlayer.
Actually that’s one of the reasons why I chose to use UE4 over Unity5 some months ago.
I was testing out Unity for a little bit, some screenshots below (ignore the fog it’s just there to hide some rubbish in the background). Irrelevant of whether you think it looks good / as good as UE etc. the main component was that in terms of performance for this specific type of scene Unity hands down beat Unreal. For me the results were more than acceptable and I got 60 FPS / 15 msec, I did everything the opposite of what Epic says to do in Unity. There are no LOD’s, the materials aren’t extremely light, there’s shadow casting / sub surface scattering / it’s completely dynamic lighting with TOD system etc. etc. and I’m still getting 60FPS with a higher draw distance…
Although, that being said… On a highly mesh based scene, Unreal wins hands down… I tried scenes of 50,000 meshes which equates to around 50 million tris and Unreal took it in it’s stride returning 70 FPS, Unity was around 30 - 40FPS. Every system I tried in both is like chalk and cheese, they respond / react differently dependant on the scenario that is fed… All I really get out of these tests is you have to play to the engines strengths…
Although on the whole I do find Unity far more work, everything you get out the box in the scene I posted got replaced. If I’m not reaching to the asset store, I’m making something custom to fill another gap that’s fairly basic / default in pretty much every major engine… In some places Unity is far easier to use, in other places Unreal is far easier to use…
I think by now you’re probably getting the picture, none of them are perfect. You make the best of what you’ve got.!
Unity was one of the first general purpose engines that was made free to to everyone.
Sure there was Torque Game Engine but that engine was so specific to an indoor online FPS if you wanted to do anything else, you had to do A LOT of work. Have fun ripping out server/client code for your single player offline game! It was horrible.
UE3 was almost as bad. If you just wanted a rendering engine that worked on a wide variety of hardware, Unity was a holy grail. For the years I used Unity, forum members replied quickly with excellent solutions.
As a VR developer, Unity has some far better official support from Oculus and Google.
Want to build a GearVR game with a debug signature so you can send the APK to anyone and they can run it?
That’s a Unity exclusive as I write this.
Want a nice Google Cardboard starter kit that easily lets you switch between stereo rendering(rendering images for each eye separately) and regular single screen rendering realtime so you can navigate menus via touch screen like a regular smartphone product but change over to VR when the goggles go on?
Another Unity exclusive right now.
Previous users mentioned some other VR related Unity exclusive features for other platforms.
There’s so much really good free stuff in the Unity marketplace.
Unreal community members are putting out some amazing free stuff too but you have to hunt for it.
If Epic wants to keep the marketplace a marketplace for selling, fine.
But this engine seriously could use a less-moderated hub for freebies too!
I tried Unity and if it wasn’t for the kind people in the community giving me advice or freebies from the marketplace, I never would have gotten anywhere.
I’m a designer and not a programmer so I really REALLY like Blueprints as Blueprints have let me create my own game logic at a level I haven’t been able to accomplish before but the feature gap in VR hurts.
I know the folks at Epic have a lot of ground to cover. I hope they can convince Google, Oculus and so forth to give all their Unreal plugins the same features as Unity but that’s possibly out of Epic’s control.
It’s kinda curious to see the same reactions on both engine’s forums. People here saying how Unity is imature and noobish, and people there saying how Unreal is overcomplicated, unnecessary and slow. I think both teams might consider showing a liitle bit more respect for both engines and companies: Epic is doing UE for so long, they helped shape the industry as we know it. Unity has TRULY democratized game development, which is their mission and mantra. Their software is easy to use, clean, and the reliance on the Marketplace is part of their business model and it works very well, though if you are a beginner and you want the most high-end tuff, you gotta pay for it. But… it’s fair, you know, they don’t take royalties after all.
Unity started with very simple games capacity and it’s moving towards AAA and it has achieved A LOT, whereas Unreal did the opposite, and it was a natural move for both. Both engines are great, both engines serve great purposes, run well, deliver what they are here to deliver, and they are both improving fast. Unity has improved more in the recent years, but that’s because Unreal was already big and stablished and Unity was small.
I like to discuss what engine does this-or-that best, to try and fit the best engine for one’s needs, but we all just got to recognize that both enginess are . Saying otherwise I think it’s a little unnecessary. No engine is perfect, we all are improving on a daily basis.
I’m moving from Unity to Unreal specially because I’m a game designer and I think Unity lacks a native visual scripting tool. They have 3rd parties, but it’s not the same power and support as Blueprints for example. Most programmers would prefer Unity, for the simplicity itself and for C#. Being a 3D artist as well, I’m accostumed to complex programs like Zbrush, which is everything but intuitive and it’s still the best software on the galaxy.
At the end of the day… it’s not the engine that matters. It’s us. The games we make. And there are games made in Unity, Unreal, CryEngine, and whatnot. It’s so good to have options available for everyone. We are living the best time to produce games. o/
Unity3D give developers just about everything they need to build games in one package. Unity3D’s Pro edition is $1,500 per user; there’s also a free version with bit less functionality, but can still be used to build and sell games.
Unity Technology may be an unsung name among the general , but game developers know that it is the most widely used and fastest growing game development platform available today. Big game titles including “Fallout Shelter,” “Temple Run,” “Monument Valley,” “Battlestar Galactica Online,” “Assassin’s Creed: Identity” and “Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft” are made with Unity.
Because it’s free and it works great on mobile.
Edit: I strongly disagree with the afirmation that Unity is easy to work with, if you’re unable to learn C# you won’t do much.
With UE4 you can watch the massive amount of tutorials and do more faster. For beginners visual scripting is better.
Unity WAS good for beginners in the past, now UE4 is the king hands down.
Unity is still very popular because it’s been the “indie” industry standard for a lot of time.
I’ve also asked myself this question many times. But as mentioned before, UE4 was a huge update from UDk/UE3. Unity stayed rather consistent though. I found most all interesting tutorials were focused around Unity - but again, Unreal 4 just has not been around that long. The supported platforms supported is also a factor, as mentioned before. You also need to remember that people like C# - even C++ programmers like Unity because they don’t need to deal with C++ (I like C#, but actually prefer C++). I don’t agree that Unity is easier to learn - as you need to do everything in code - where Unreal has a visual scripting system that , while still scripting - is not nearly as complicated as working in c++. I also don’t believe that anything in the industry will match the blueprint system, unless they copy what they did with it (steal its ideas).
Frankly, most other visual scripting systems that I have used were boring (and that is coming from a programmer - we find cubes interesting). I also feel Unreal is fun and rewarding - every button is shiny and drooling to be clicked like a puppy to be played with - where some other 3D apps care more about features than usability (though Unity is fairly straight forward in this regard).
I would not recommend Unity to someone who is new, unless they have specific ideas, or want to build a mobile game for example, though I don’t really even want to do that.
I worked with it for almost 2 years, and starting out (coming from UDK), I was surprised that I had to basically write my own level streaming system - something (to name just one feature) that Unreal has built in. Now that is easy for a 20 year veteran C++ programmer who knows how to do it (it is easy, as my instructor said - as I struggled with basic for loops), but for newcomers, unreal already has a simple, and dare I say it - fun solution. I had all kinds of issues with the snapping features that were missing (you could buy addons for this of course, if you sold enough kidneys), so yeah - went straight back to Unreal and soon as I could, and happy I did so. I guess it boils down to personal preference as well - starting out with Unity, you may not like Unreal (though I find that hard to fathom).
Why would someone be unable to learn C#? I’m learning Blueprints and I learned a bit of C#. There’s nothing overcomplicated in it, and I’m a designer. For a beginner coder, C# makes much more sense than Blueprints or C++. Blueprints is amazing as well, but you’ll have a hard time convincing most programmers about it.
I believe discrediting one or the other is simply not accurate. Both are amazing, be the BP/C++ solution for Unreal or C# solution for Unity.
And there are tons of C# tutorials and Unity tutorials everywhere.
But about the overall engine editor… Unity is MUCH easier to use in my opinion. And I’m accostumed to complex 3D programs, being ZBrush one of the most complex. In ZBrush if you’re a beginner you won’t even know where to start. But what I think polutes Unreal is the excessive amount of editors and tabs. This has advantages, but many drawbacks too.
The biggest issues I always have had with Unity is version control for a team, it’s always ended up getting hosed at some point. The second is multiplayer.
The main pushback that I have gotten at developers that use Unity over UE4 is that they don’t like the 5% royalty, they would rather pay the $1,500 a seat.
It’s much easier licensing wise to use Unity on U.S. Government contracts.
Fixed cost per seat.
Why is Unity the most popular engine?
Unity became popular because Microsoft brought all of the world’s small-time game developers into one place with XNA (enormous marketing push, high profile, big product claims) and then subsequently vanished into thin air. Unity at that time was simply the nearest body having significant mass (free to use and powerful) and like a black hole sucked all of these small time developers up. Unity remains popular because it allows people to make games quickly and put them out quickly, which for many of these people making quality products is not a major concern, it is simply the act of making games and retaining status as a “developer” or making a small amount of money that is important to them. Unity is like a shotgun, load it up with a shell of a game and pull the trigger and you can hit multiple target platforms. It’s popular among hobbyists and amateurs because it makes a lot of bang for your buck.
Why don’t people switch to Unreal?
For the games most people are making (small scope, poor quality, 2D, mobile) they don’t need the extra horse power. For those who do wish to make 3D games, they like to constantly demand features that Unreal already has and seem more interested in being part of an angry movement than they are in actually making any games. All of this because Unity has an almost cult-like following, it’s like an online, virtual democratic society. Unreal may be better-suited for the task of making video games than Unity, but that is not enough to make people switch because making games is not the focus for most Unity users. For example, recently Unity changed its forum software. This sparked a revolution, which called for people to be fired and to commit suicide as an act of penance. Unity had to revert software. The community cannot be satisfied. If things remain the same, people will call for change. If things change, people will call for blood. Unity tolerates this and puts up with it because they are making money hand-over-fist. And that’s perhaps the most important point. Unity tolerates a lot. People feel comfortable with Unity because it will accept any person into the community, no matter their experience level or the quality of games they have produced… or if they are even game developers. Maybe that’s the most important point? A lot of Unity users aren’t really game developers, but for $1500.00 or $75/month they are officially pro game developers. They have a receipt to prove it.
When you look at the sheer amount of bad games that are out there, it should be clear: you don’t want to be a part of the majority. Unreal is clearly a better product and it doesn’t carry the stigma that “Made with Unity” does. When you think about it, the main reason you pay for Unity Pro is to hide the fact that you are a unity developer (eliminate the splash screen). When you consider that fact alone, there can be no objective, rational reason why Unity is more popular, now can there?
for those who are interested XNA has been “resurrected” here: GitHub - MonoGame/MonoGame: One framework for creating powerful cross-platform games.
most of the XNA packages should run just fine.