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.
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To acquire Crytek's CRYENGINE game engine, head here.
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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everlast66 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!Reply -
photonboy Epic 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?Reply -
Kieran Warren Unreal 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 engineReply -
Blazer1985 Plus, with unreal engine, you can target ios and android devices. Definetly worth the money imho.Reply -
coolitic Finally, indies shall prevail.Too bad Crytek couldn't of gone indie with Crysis 3. I choose to believe EA ruined it.Reply -
Gillerer Reply5% of gross revenue fee is just about the same as having a royalty fee lol.
That 5 % was on Epic's UnrealEngine 4, not Crytek's CryEngine which this news story was about. -
ddpruitt I'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.Reply -
mrmike_49 says $10/month WHILE they are developing the game, but HOW MUCH once game is developed and marketed?????????????Reply