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posted by janrinok on Thursday March 20 2014, @07:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the battle-of-the-engines dept.

First time submitter hoopsman notes that Crytek are matching the Unreal Engine 4 recent announcement, and writes:

"From the article:

Crytek counters Unreal Engine announcement with royalty-free "engine-as-a-service" available for under $10 a month.

Both programs are targeting small developers, but Crytek is making cost-effectiveness a main part of its pitch. The CryEngine program will cost developers $9.90 a month (or 9.90 Euros in Europe), with no royalties due to Crytek. On the other hand, Epic Games' program costs $19 a month, with developers having to pay the company 5 percent of gross revenues from all projects that use any part of the Unreal Engine code.

Crytek's program also supports "all of today's leading platforms," while the Unreal Engine subscription currently does not extend to consoles. Because part of that program involves giving developers access to the full C++ source code, Epic said that various non-disclosure agreements are keeping it from adding the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Unreal Engine 4 to the program (for the moment, at least)."

 
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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20 2014, @07:57PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20 2014, @07:57PM (#19046)
    Hey guys, I just finished work on my Arduino-driven, vibrating buttplug. Is this awesome?!!
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by tibman on Thursday March 20 2014, @09:21PM

      by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 20 2014, @09:21PM (#19067)

      With 40mA max output per pin i don't think you'll get much vibration. I'd suggest some kind of motor controller or H bridge.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20 2014, @10:38PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20 2014, @10:38PM (#19091)
        You know way too much about buttplugs, brah.
        • (Score: 1) by Tork on Friday March 21 2014, @03:43AM

          by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 21 2014, @03:43AM (#19153)

          Actually he was talking about how much current an Arduino board can provide. You're obviously not nerdy enough to carry this conversation, do you need directions back to Slashdot?

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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20 2014, @08:13PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20 2014, @08:13PM (#19050)

    Since we're making offers, these engines are uniquely positioned.

    https://libregamewiki.org/Category:3D_engines [libregamewiki.org]

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Koen on Thursday March 20 2014, @10:18PM

      by Koen (427) on Thursday March 20 2014, @10:18PM (#19085)

      Godot game engine [godotengine.org] (MIT license) is missing from that list

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by etherscythe on Thursday March 20 2014, @10:25PM

    by etherscythe (937) on Thursday March 20 2014, @10:25PM (#19090) Journal

    Another interesting feature is that they are adding direct Linux Support [crytek.com] which is apparently being shown right now at the GDC booth.

    Unreal Engine appears to support Android at least somewhat, but not native Linux.

    While I don't know that this helps developers that want their game to be fully open-source, I figure getting more gaming support off the ground will be a good thing for the Linux platform esp. as related to SteamOS and such.

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  • (Score: 1) by hatta on Thursday March 20 2014, @11:12PM

    by hatta (879) on Thursday March 20 2014, @11:12PM (#19105)

    Who pays for the subscription? The developer or the end user? What happens when the subscription ends? Do I get to keep my games?

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Lunix Nutcase on Thursday March 20 2014, @11:35PM

      by Lunix Nutcase (3913) on Thursday March 20 2014, @11:35PM (#19115)

      Both programs are targeting small developers , but Crytek is making cost-effectiveness a main part of its pitch. The CryEngine program will cost developers $9.90 a month (or 9.90 Euros in Europe), with no royalties due to Crytek.

      The quote from Crytek in the summary is pretty explicit.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by davester666 on Friday March 21 2014, @06:12AM

        by davester666 (155) on Friday March 21 2014, @06:12AM (#19172)

        So, once I ship, I can stop paying? Oops, bug fix, I have to start paying again. Done. Stop paying.

        Like that?

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by michealpwalls on Friday March 21 2014, @01:52PM

    by michealpwalls (3920) on Friday March 21 2014, @01:52PM (#19295) Homepage Journal

    As a student studying computer programming/systems analysis I think this is pretty cool news.

    The offering from Epic (Unreal Engine 4 with a $19/month subscription fee and a 5% gross royalty) is pretty tough. Bringing a game to market isn't cheap and there's no shortage of companies with their hands out as it is... To pay 5% off the top before filling those hands is a lot more than some might expect.

    I think this is really good for budding developers, like myself and in fact like kids growing up. For educational purposes and for the production of Free, Linux-supported games this is stunning news!

    IANAL (I'm not a lawyer), but from what I can infer, these licenses both allow for a lot more freedom than some commentors seem to have noticed. Firstly, the subscription is monthly however when you stop paying it, you do retain the current code-base you previously paid for, however with no new code updates, support or etc. If you are releasing the game for free, you do not have to pay the royalty fee (For Unreal).

    Again, I'm not a lawyer but I think if you license the engine for ~$9.90 and it takes you and your team 6 months to develop a free game for Linux, you pay the 6*9.90 for the 6 months and can stop paying after the game is done and in the repositories. Since it's free, it's perfectly legal and royalty free.

    Also, checkout Unity. I couldn't make a decent looking stick-man figure, but with Unity you can go to the Asset Store and purchase graphics-assets from artists. Brilliant!