Epic makes uber powerful Unreal Engine 4 free. Go develop something now!

“You get an Unreal Engine 4! And YOU get an Unreal Engine 4!” That’s what we like to imagine Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney yelling around the office before taking a deep breath, composing himself, and submitting the following statement to the Unreal Engine blog.

“Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free, and all future updates will be free,” he writes, eyes aflame with the burning of a thousand suns probably. “You can download the engine and use it for everything from game development, education, architecture, and visualization to VR, film and animation.”

So what’s the catch? Well, when you release your application, you pay a 5% royalty on gross revenue after the first $3,000 per product, per quarter. “It’s a simple arrangement in which we succeed only when you succeed,” writes Sweeney.

Indeed, removing the financial barrier allows more people to get involved with game development, which can only be good news for the industry and poor people. And if you’ve already paid for a UE4 subscription, you’ll receive $30 credit to spend in the Unreal Engine Marketplace.

Upcoming titles employing the latest in Epic’s line of popular, powerful game engines include Street Fighter V, Fable Legends and Eve Valkyrie. If you want a demonstration of what it’s capable of, check out the stunning footage below of a Parisian apartment rendered in near photo-real detail.