Epic Games released Unreal Engine 4.1 on Thursday, which now supports the PlayStation 4, the Xbox One and Valve’s SteamOS platform. The company has the Linux and SteamOS support listed as beta in the release notes, stating that deploying projects to Linux requires compiling source from GitHub using a Windows computer.
"Since releasing Unreal Engine 4 to the community last month, we’ve been working with Sony and Microsoft on a process for opening the engine up to all subscribers seeking to build games for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This effort has now succeeded!" says Epic’s Josh Adams.
Epic Games introduced a subscription model for Unreal Engine 4 back in March, opening the doors to the whole game development community. Subscribers have access to all the tools, features and complete C++ source code. In addition to the monthly fee, developers are required to pay 5 percent of gross revenue resulting from a commercial product built using this engine.
"All Unreal Engine subscribers who are registered Xbox developers or registered PlayStation developers (including members of the ID@Xbox indie program) can receive access to UE4’s complete source code for their respective console platforms, at no extra cost," Adams writes on the Unreal Engine website.
In addition to the subscription model, developers can also license Unreal Engine 4 through "custom-negotiated" terms. This is for companies that want a closer relationship with Epic, or those who seek to reduce or even eliminate the 5 percent royalty in exchange for up-front payment.
"For the past two years, some of the world’s leading console developers have been using UE4 to build their next-generation games," Adams writes. "They are doing some amazing things, and we’re very excited to be able to open up the console code and tools far more widely! We’re also grateful to our partners Microsoft and Sony for their efforts in making this release possible."
To see what’s changed in Unreal Engine 4.1, head here. Let's see some amazing things on Linux and SteamOS!
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