Crytek Engine Subscription Plan Targets Game Making Startups
Crytek's subscription is cheaper and doesn't require a royalty fee.
On Wednesday, Crytek introduced an "Engine-as-a-Service" program that grants anyone access to the same CRYENGINE toolset that was used to create the Xbox One exclusive game, Ryse: Son of Rome. The program starts in May, and will cost developers $9.90 per month without a royalty fee.
According to the company, subscribers will have access to CRYENGINE features introduced during GDC 2014 including Physically Based Shading, Geometry Cache and Image Based Lighting. Unfortunately, that's all the details we get for now; the company plans to talk more about this new service at a later date.
"When we announced the new CRYENGINE this was our first step towards creating an engine as a service," said Crytek's Director of Business Development, Carl Jones. "We are happy to announce now that the latest update of CRYENGINE will soon be available to all developers on a subscription basis."
The news follows Epic Games who revealed a subscription plan for Unreal Engine 4 just days ago. For $19 per month, the development community will have access to all the tools, features and complete C++ source code. In addition to the monthly fee, developers will also be required to pay 5 percent of gross revenue resulting from a commercial product built using this engine.
Read more: Unreal Engine 4 Subscription Model for Budding Developers
That said, not only is Crytek's subscription cheaper, but it doesn't require the royalty fee. Not sure if the subscription is right for you? Crytek still provides CRYENGINE for free for those who are developing software for non-commercial use.
"We are really excited to make CRYENGINE available to hundreds of thousands of developers working with Crytek to make awesome games," Jones adds.
To acquire Crytek's CRYENGINE game engine, head here.
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11 Hideeverlast66 , March 21, 2014 7:26 PMGreat option from Crytek, giving small developers a chance to use a great engine and tools. Unlike greedy Epic/Unreal with their requirement for a double monthly fee and 5% royalty from your revenue. Keep in mind this is 5% of the total income, which means if you only have 10% profit after expenses they want half of it!
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11 Hideeverlast66 , March 21, 2014 7:26 PMGreat option from Crytek, giving small developers a chance to use a great engine and tools. Unlike greedy Epic/Unreal with their requirement for a double monthly fee and 5% royalty from your revenue. Keep in mind this is 5% of the total income, which means if you only have 10% profit after expenses they want half of it!
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5 Hidejasonelmore , March 21, 2014 10:08 PM5% of gross revenue fee is just about the same as having a royalty fee lol.
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4 Hidephotonboy , March 22, 2014 1:45 AMEpic is definitely NOT being greedy. Unreal 4 Engine has lots of features that can save many, many hours of work which could easily add up to more than the 5% cost.Obviously the game developers would weight the pros and cons when choosing what tools they use.I'm not sure why people think this is a rip-off because all companies have costs. Would you tell the truckers that they shouldn't use FUEL because it's 75% the cost of their revenue?
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0 HideKieran Warren , March 22, 2014 5:04 AMUnreal is a much easier engine to use compared to CryEngine and much better for indie developers, Cry Engine is only good for big developers who have the time to make it worthwhile using that engine
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0 HideBlazer1985 , March 22, 2014 6:38 AMPlus, with unreal engine, you can target ios and android devices. Definetly worth the money imho.
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0 Hidecoolitic , March 22, 2014 9:15 AMFinally, indies shall prevail.Too bad Crytek couldn't of gone indie with Crysis 3. I choose to believe EA ruined it.
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1 HideGillerer , March 22, 2014 10:46 AMThat 5 % was on Epic's UnrealEngine 4, not Crytek's CryEngine which this news story was about.Quote:5% of gross revenue fee is just about the same as having a royalty fee lol.
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3 Hideddpruitt , March 22, 2014 10:57 AMI'm amazed at all the people bashing Epic for asking 5%. The hardest part of a game to develop is the engine, if you use a prebuilt engine you can focus on the content of your game which easily cover 5% of your production costs. Making a game engine isn't cheap a short list of recent titles that use Unreal: Batman Arkham Series, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands, Gears of War, Mass Effect, XCOM, and the list go on. By building a good engine you can free Game Designers to design games, a good engine doesn't come cheap. Homegrown engines are obvious, they're unpolished, buggy, and just don't work well (SimCity anyone?). I would expect Crytek to have a some sort of Royalty/Gross fee.
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0 Hidemrmike_49 , March 22, 2014 7:17 PMsays $10/month WHILE they are developing the game, but HOW MUCH once game is developed and marketed?????????????
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0 HideDamon Palovaara , March 22, 2014 8:55 PMI wish Unreal Engine had a trial version I could try
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-2 Hideantilycus , March 22, 2014 9:59 PMCan I develop ON Linux for any platform? I am done using MS products. I'll sell to them, but I won't, period, develop on them.
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0 HideOldbutstillatit , March 23, 2014 6:57 PMThey do. Google UDK
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0 Hidegggplaya , March 24, 2014 5:17 AMIt says no royalty, so nothing.Quote:says $10/month WHILE they are developing the game, but HOW MUCH once game is developed and marketed?????????????
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0 HideChristopher Shaffer , March 24, 2014 8:59 AMI think this is awesome. So awesome, in fact that I may just have to install when I get home.I'm curious about the description, though. The reference to an Xboner game makes me wonder: is this engine viable for PC development, too?I'm assuming this is the "whole" Crytek engine.
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0 HideChristopher Shaffer , March 24, 2014 9:30 AMI've actually just reviewed this on their site. I've never messed with Unreal Engine, but if it's as easy to use as the CryEngine, I'll be paying a sub fee for both very soon.Just looking at the free SDK, you don't even need to know how to code (yay! because my front-end developer skills won't cut it!) to build a game.That is more than worth ~$10/mo.Quote:I think this is awesome. So awesome, in fact that I may just have to install when I get home.I'm curious about the description, though. The reference to an Xboner game makes me wonder: is this engine viable for PC development, too?I'm assuming this is the "whole" Crytek engine.
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0 HideChristopher Shaffer , March 24, 2014 2:23 PMI think this is awesome. So awesome, in fact that I may just have to install when I get home.I'm curious about the description, though. The reference to an Xboner game makes me wonder: is this engine viable for PC development, too?I'm assuming this is the "whole" Crytek engine.
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0 Hidecphorn15 , March 25, 2014 10:55 AMThis largely depends on your production team size. Everyone seems to gloss over the fact that it costs $9.90 per developer seat for the engine per month. If you are touting a team of 10-15 as a startup with little to no money, Unreal is suddenly far more attractive. Before all of this was even happening, Unity was the better option as you didn't have to give up 25% (UDK3) or pay a hefty up front fee (both UE3 and CE3). Unfortunately for Unity, these models far outweigh what it currently offers, so they are going to have to change their pricing model to stay relevant.Quote:Great option from Crytek, giving small developers a chance to use a great engine and tools. Unlike greedy Epic/Unreal with their requirement for a double monthly fee and 5% royalty from your revenue. Keep in mind this is 5% of the total income, which means if you only have 10% profit after expenses they want half of it!
