Project 2

Unreal Engine is a complete suite of development tools for anyone working with real-time technology. It gives creators across industries the freedom and control to deliver cutting-edge entertainment, compelling visualisation and immersive virtual worlds. It is also possible to develop interactive architectural visualization created with Unreal Engine 4. Unreal Engine 4 was released in 2014, Unreal Engine 4 dropped its former in-house scripting language in favour of C++ and replaced its visual scripting system for a brand new one, Blueprints. The release of Unreal 4 also marked the launch of its Marketplace. Jon Favreau and Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic division worked with Epic in developing their StageCraft technology using the Unreal Engine for The Mandalorian. Over the years, Epic has delighted us with tech demos showing what Unreal is capable of, from ray tracing to real-time technology, to physics and destruction systems. Unreal's photorealism is also one of the reasons why it is widely used outside of games too, in sectors such as architecture, product design, and filmmaking.

Another aspect that has evolved drastically over the years is its pricing model. Up until Unreal Engine 3, Epic's licensing costs were high, starting at $99 for its Unreal Development Kit but usually going much higher as most licences were custom. When Unreal 4 was released, Epic Games tested a subscription model at $19 a month, which resulted in its userbase growing ten times larger in a single year. At that point, the company decided to make Unreal 4 free. Epic then switched to a royalties system, if your game made more than $3,000 per calendar quarter, Epic would take a 5% royalty. Unreal Engine 4 supports a wide variety of platforms: Windows PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, AR, VR, Linux, SteamOS and HTML5. With more than 7.5 million developers using Unreal.

(Dealessandri 2020)

Tim Sweeny speaks at the Gaming Development Convention in 2019 “Epic has two different philosophies,” Sweeney says of moderating the Epic Store. “When we’re building tools, we respect developers’ complete creative freedom. It can be used for the development for anything that’s legal. You can make a game we disagree with.” But when it comes to the store, Sweeney says the company prioritizes “high-quality experiences.” (Sweeny 2019)

In 2020 Epic promoted the news that it will make the Unreal Engine royalty-free until a game makes $1 in revenue. This change in policy had huge ramifications for the small independent game development studios. It applies no matter where you launch an Unreal Engine-developed game. Thanks to combined, existing promotions, an Unreal Engine game's launch on Epic Games Store could garner a whopping 23 percent more revenue after fees than on Steam. "This is amazing for developers, but also students and people who are interested in how a cutting-edge game engine is built from the ground up," (Coulianos 2020)