OK, so how many of you may have seen, Unreal Engine 4 is now free (Mainly Because Of The Money Being Made On The Marketplace Now). To a lot this idea seems , but to me it seems like this will turn Epics name into a joke like Unity name is now. The great thing about the $19 a month, and no free plans was that people who were on the forums were serious about game development, and that is the difference between Unity and Unreal. Now that it is free I expect soon to see the forms page having a lot of immature posts like Unity’s. That isn’t the only problem I see although, the other issue is that ever since Unity has become free so many games have been releasing that are either incomplete or stupid, and has made PC gaming a joke and most people always blame Unity for this (although it is not their fault). I just don’t want Epic to fall the same way.
Epic gains revenue off of completed projects and off the marketplace, as well as other sources. Poorly made projects won’t do well and developing a game can be very complex.
I’m happy that unreal is free but your right, now it’s free it seems like a lot of non serious developers or kids mucking about with games will join up and turn this great community of serious developers into some sort of farce. Maybe epic should make like a paid forum… $5 a month for serious developers. It does seem a lot of people on here chat regularly on Skype anyway and I’m sure they won’t let people who just want to muck about join into their projects.
What about the people that already paid for Unreal Engine 4 before? They can’t just pay again - that violates the original terms and conditions of $20/month with unlimited access even after subscription ends (you just wouldn’t get updates).
Ya, I think maybe when Unreal engine 5 comes out it will cost money for it, and when or if that happens their should be a premium user forums.
This is a silly complaint.
By making UE4 free, a 15 year old with no money can sit in his/her basement and learn how to build a game. …It’s very similar to how I began.
One day, this young kid could become a highly valued and respected member of the game development industry, pushing the tech and industry in a bold new direction and building things. Why wouldn’t we want them to have this kind of opportunity?! So what if they start out making games you think are dumb?
I don’t care why, back in 2010 I was naively thinking about how many hundreds of thousands of dollars I could spare for a UE3 source license, like I was gonna make full use of it on my own and make an investment turnover.
What an idiot! now I have better deal, a better engine and more down-to-earth expectations, I would be lucky to attain the royalty range of income.
Keep surprising us!!
We are constantly learning new things and becoming better by time, everyone of us has been a kid/teenager whatever you wanna call it, so don’t judge, help instead.
Epic forums a place for serious developers???
I don’t think so. More of a place to eat pizza and drink beer. (soda for the under age)
Epic is like Nike that supply’s you with the gear and if your serious then you can always join a team with common interests. Not everyone is interested in running a marathon.
It’s free because it’s brilliant. It solves so many issues. Everything is falling into place with this strategy.
For instance:
The UE Editor. As I understood it, prior to this announcement, a developer could not ship a game that encapsulated and added features to the UE Editor itself. Developers of quality games that want their games to have an editor for users to mod, level design, and such, faced two choices: A) indirectly support UE Editor but require that game purchasers also have a UE account (paying at least $19 on top of what they already paid for the game). B) developing their own editor entirely from scratch or with third-party tools.
Option A is obviously a complete no-go and not just because of the price. No good game in its right mind would want to frustrate users with that indirection. Option B is doable but then it wouldn’t benefit Epic (less game players using UE Editor). This new pricing model suggests that it’s no longer going to be an issue, that the licensing doesn’t stand in the way. It swings the door wide open. It means UE can amass a major community of modders, artists, scripters, and players. There are other revenue streams that come from a larger community that has no barriers to entry.
One or two of these ‘stupid kids’ could be the next Hideo Kojima; no one knows. Hideo himself was just like that and I very much respect him for what he had accomplished. (just to name one of them)
Many, many old school heroes was just that. Curious young guys trying to learn/make something from their machines in their bedrooms.
I know I won’t because I’m already too old, but I’d LOVE to see some kid reach a stellar career now that all the technology, once impossible to gain access to, is freely accessible for him/her to use and learn from.
UE4 being free will make Unity & Cryengine want to be better. Cryengine will have to top free with more features and Unity will have to either drop its price tag or reduce some of the limitations on its free version.
It isn’t a complaint as much as a topic of debate. I understand the scenario you depicted because that was me 4 years ago, and yes in that case I totally agree, but even 30 year old can put out a game that is garbage and they know it. I know a lot of good games can come out of this just like what came out of Unity, but their will also be a lot of garbage, and I care because it effects the market a lot, just look how E.T. collapsed the entire industry, although I do understand into today’s world of living the gaming market is 1000X stronger.
This is a topic of debate, not a place to start calling names just because you don’t agree with others ideas.
Sounds like you miss Unity too much, can’t stop talking about it…
You’re not gonna tell people what games they should publish.
If you can’t be mature about the topic at hand that is fine. Also I recall only using Unity once for 2 - 3 hours, and the only times I have mentioned Unity is when I have said I didn’t like it. So if you could, explain were you got the idea I like, or miss it. I simply used it as a example. So again, please act mature.
You’re a Troll then for spending years on Unity forums (based on your knowledge of what happened over there) while having used their engine for a mere 2-3 hours.
Consider this my last reply to this pointless thread.
You must be a troll, because yet again you are saying info that I have never said. I never said I have spent years on Unity’s forums.
I think hurleyboardes apprehension is very justified.
Unfortunately there’s nothing Epic can do against a swarm of kids flooding the forums with silly questions about how to create their own Battlefield or Call of Duty. This is the bad effect of making the engine free for everyone.
Thank you. You worded that way better then I did.