An interesting bit of news today: Crytek’s CryEngine is available for download on the Steam store for a cool $9.90/mo. Developers can get royalty-free access to all of CryEngine’s features with this new subscription-based payment plan.
Carl Jones, Crytek’s Dir. of Bus. Development, had the following to say
“We wanted to ensure that when we released CRYENGINE to subscribers, it would be in the best place to address today’s indie gamers and developers. Steam is the best place right now for developers to create their games, show them to a huge community and even release them directly to market – it fits our philosophy for Engine as a Service perfectly. Today’s announcement means we are adding the first complete game development engine to Steam, with access to enough source code to allow the creation of any kind of PC game. We’re also giving indie developers state-of-the-art tools that live within the same eco-system that they can choose to publish their games. By ruling out royalties we are aiming to make CRYENGINE the best choice for everyone, and hope its arrival on Steam will empower developers of all sizes to achieve their creative visions.”
Crytek are testing the waters in the new “Engine-as-a-Service” arena, making the popular engine available to millions of Steam users. The Steam release of the engine follows Unreal Engine 4’s similar subscription-based (but not royalty-free) service, which hit the market two months ago. Immediate access to future engine releases and design documentation will be available for multiple platforms: PC, PS3/4, Xbox One/360 and WiiU being the largest. A variety of tutorials, demo levels, and assets promise to get developers up and running, quickly.
As large and competitive as the indie market has become, royalty-free development that saves revenue sure does make funding that much easier to swallow. Indie gaming just got slightly more interesting…
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