Unreal Engine 4 expands developer reach by going free.

Now you can get hands on Epic’ Games  game engine, provided that you give them something in return once you created something commercially.

Unreal Engine 4 , the next gen game engine by Epic Games, just went commercially free for developers, together with all its updates. The free release was initiated by Epic Games themselves after numerous low-cost subscription schemes. While free in a sense that anyone can download and play around with the UE4 dev environment, subscribers will still have to “pay” for the usage of the game through the form of royalty fees if they are able to produce and ship applications using Unreal Engine 4.

According to Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games  “The state of Unreal is strong, and we’ve realized that as we take away barriers, more people are able to fulfill their creative visions and shape the future of the medium we love. That’s why we’re taking away the last barrier to entry, and going free.” This switch should hopefully encourage young developers to create bigger and better things using Unreal Engine 4. Previously paid subscribers on the other hand will be receiving a $30 credit for their previous payments.