Unreal Engine 4 Now Free for Everyone

Effective immediately, Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4--one of the most widely-used development toolsets--is now available to developers everywhere for free. Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney announced the news Monday in a blog post titled "If you love something, set it free."

This follow's last year's announcement of a subscription-based Unreal Engine program. Current subscribers will receive a pro-rated refund. Plus, anyone who has ever paid for an Unreal Engine 4 subscription will receive a $30 credit good in the Unreal Engine Marketplace.

Starting now, anyone can download the Unreal Engine 4 engine and use it to build whatever they want. If projects are released commercially, creators must pay a 5 percent royalty on gross revenue following the first $3,000 per product, per quarter.

This means, "Epic succeeds only when creators succeed," the developer said.

The free version of Unreal Engine 4 now available to developers is not a trial or sample edition, Sweeney stressed. It's the full version.

"This is the complete technology Epic uses to build their own games," Epic Games explained. "Unreal Engine 4 scales from indie projects to high-end blockbusters; it supports major platforms; and, it includes 100% of the C++ source code. Epic's goal is to give developers everything, so they can do anything and be in control of their own schedule and their own destiny. Whatever is required to build and ship a game can be found in UE4, sourced in the Marketplace, or built and shared it with others."

"In Epic's 25 years as an independent company, we have seen no time of greater opportunity for developers than today," Sweeney said. "Whatever your development aspirations, Epic stands with you, both as a technology provider, and as a fellow game developer counting on UE4 to power our own games."

Epic has also released a sizzle reel that shows numerous Unreal Engine 4-powered games, including Hellblade, DMC: Definitive Edition, and Batman: Arkham Knight, among others. Watch it below.

The announcement was made today on the first day of the Game Developers Conference. GameSpot will be reporting live from the show all week long.