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Epic Games offers up $5 million in Unreal Dev Grants

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Meltdown, Feb 19, 2015.

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  1. Meltdown

    Meltdown

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  2. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    Free money? Why, that's a splendid notion! would love to see a similar initiative from Unity!
     
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  3. Ryiah

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    As I suggested in another thread, they could offer Unity Pro licenses for use with a single game rather than give away cash.
     
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  4. R-Lindsay

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    Things are really heating up now. Great time to be a developer on the receiving end of all this competition.
     
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  5. Aiursrage2k

    Aiursrage2k

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    Yeah man unreal4 is looking better and better. Whats unity going to do stay relevant, I just cant quite be bothered to switch engines yet. Although maybe i might as well depending on what happens tomorrow.
     
  6. Andy-Touch

    Andy-Touch

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    What is happening tomorrow?
     
  7. adventurefan

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    Darn, I really wish it was the other way around and Unity was the one offering.
     
  8. Aiursrage2k

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    I dont know that grant money looks nice.
     
  9. TylerPerry

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    Well he said he doesn't know didn't he...
     
  10. Andy-Touch

    Andy-Touch

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    I just assumed that there was some event or another announcment or something happening tomorrow. Seems like a random thing to say if nothing is happening. :$
     
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  11. SteveJ

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    I love how every time a competing engine dangles a little carrot everyone suddenly says - That's it! I'm switching! Unity is irrelevant now :)
     
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  12. SteveJ

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    I'm going to email them with my Unity project and see if they'll still give me some money...
     
  13. Ryiah

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    Most of those people are hobbyists or low profit indie developers. Getting $5,000 to $50,000 to use as you please so long as your project is developed in Unreal 4 can be a very big motivational factor. It could easily cover expenses for those who are talented yet cannot really spend the time necessary getting into the field or lack the resources to make a bigger project.

    What if they offer you $50,000 to switch? :p
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2015
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  14. SteveJ

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    For 50 grand I'd switch to RPG Maker :)
     
  15. Aiursrage2k

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    They made hotline miami, nuclear throne and gods will be watching with gamemaker.
     
  16. SteveJ

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    GameMaker is pretty awesome - I've played around with it a bit lately. I like the programming language - GML (I think it's called). Interesting that they've now been bought out as of yesterday...
     
  17. angrypenguin

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    I actually see well placed grants working really well with Unreal's business model. It's great marketing now, it might directly attract developers, it will help a lot with the titles that benefit from it, and that will in turn result in more marketing in the future.

    I'd also assume it wouldn't cost them the whole amount since they'd be able to do accountanty things with it like offset their tax by the granted figure or something.
     
  18. Sslaxx

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    Plus, for those commercially successful games funded by the grants, they'll possibly make more than the value of the grant back via the 5% royalties.
     
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  19. superpig

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    5% royalties means they need a 2,000% return on their investment to make the money back.
     
  20. elmar1028

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    They might probably invest money into games which are most likely to be a huge success. Besides, UE clearly stated they could invest between $5,000 or $50,000.
     
  21. superpig

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    If there's a reliable way to look at a game and judge that it is 'likely to be a huge success' to the tune of a 2,000% return on investment, then please tell me, I'll borrow $50,000 and use it to fund some games of my own ;-)

    Yes, so if they give you $5,000, they need you to make a game that generates $100,000 in order to make their money back from you. If they give you $50,000, they need you to make $1mil.
     
  22. R-Lindsay

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    But whatever loss they make on that investment is going to be offset by the influx of new monthly subscriptions and released games. I think it's a pretty good way to spend your advertising budget.
     
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  23. Xaron

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    Do you really see it only that way? This is an investment which doesn't necessarily pays off with each of the projects they support. You can't do the math that easy. It will pay off in the long run, something you Unity guys should learn from. ;)
     
  24. tswalk

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    instead of asking what you can do with that money, perhaps a more truthful answer could be found by asking the question "where is that money coming from"....

    then you can understand what the purpose of this is
     
  25. superpig

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    Of course successful projects could cover the money lost on unsuccessful projects. It's still the case that, across the portfolio of projects that they invest in, they need a 2,000% return overall in order to make their money back.
     
  26. hippocoder

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    Have to wonder why it's necessary to do this.
     
  27. tswalk

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    exactly.

    things like this are not done for the altruism.... in my opinion, it's all about market share... and they've (currently) got some heavy backers willing to let a few million$ go for the sake of that venture.
     
  28. GarBenjamin

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    Seems very reasonable. Marketing. Generating buzz.

    It's not about the games at all. If a game comes out of this that is a big success that is gravy. This is marketing generating buzz. This news is likely being picked up my many game development and Indy game sites. It may even get picked up by national news sites. Heck I wouldn't be surprised to see the news spread even to other game engine sites and forums. ;)
     
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  29. Arowx

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    I think it's a great idea, not as focused as a challenge/prize system but really a great way to bring games to your engine and to take promising ideas and boost them into good or great implementations.

    Will they accept Unity prototypes, I've got a few lying around here!

    Anyone got a Unity to Unreal converter?! ;)
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2015
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  30. hippocoder

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    Go go, find out.
     
  31. Teila

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    Remember when Walmart ate up all the small businesses? This feels like that. A huge Chinese company backs UE and they are trying to eat up the competitors. Unfortunately, throwing money at people works, especially when avenues for funding are limited.

    They also seem to be great at stealing the thunder from competitors, announcing this just before GDC.

    Somehow, I don't think announcing that one can buy a Unity Pro license and get all the platforms is going to compete, especially since UE4 already does that.
     
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  32. bigSadFace

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    Smart marketing move. They have already stated they will be able to announce the first supported projects at GDC. I like what Unreal are doing. I think there is room for a number of engines in the market. Sadly Unreal isn't best positioned for mobile development and hitting low level hardware. I struggle to run the editor on my MBP.
     
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  33. Teila

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    Not just mobile either. Our current game won't do well with UE4. It just doesn't have what we need. We do have a few single player games in the works as well and those might do better with UE4 because of the scope. Not sure how much I will be involved with those though since I am too old to learn another engine...lol. :)
     
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  34. GarBenjamin

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    Just did a quick search and the buzz is spreading quickly already covered by Gamasutra, GameInformer, EuroGamer and many other popular sites as well as a ton of tiny sites. "They are putting their money with their mouth is... they want to really help the Indy developers!" seems to be the message people are getting from this.

    Great marketing buzz and positive image building case study. I know nothing about UE4 (other then the numerous posts made about it on the Unity forums lol) and have no interest in it at all but give them credit for such a simple yet effective marketing campaign.
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2015
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  35. GarBenjamin

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    Hey this means even more people will be coming into game development to get their $5k to $50k game dev grant they "can spend however they want"! Wonderful. ;)
     
  36. hippocoder

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    Everyone here is doing a brilliant job with the marketing campaign. Keep it up :)
     
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  37. Arowx

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    OK I just need a Unity to Unreal converter, anyone, checked the asset store but couldn't find one???
     
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  38. Teila

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    Not sure what this means. Should we be ignoring this and acting like fanbois and girls? We are sticking with Unity but that doesn't mean that we can't respect a good marketing ploy. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

    I like to stay pretty unemotional when looking at business matters. I use Unity because it is a good fit for me personally and our current game. I am not emotionally attached to Unity. :) Financially maybe...but not emotionally.

    I am emotionally attached to my cats though. :p
     
  39. Arowx

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    What if Unity did a similar publicity stunt but with a grant fund of $15,000,000 and grants of $1,500 for Unity free users with a game they would like to bring to Unity Pro!

    That would be like 10,000 new Unity Pro projects and the real cost to Unity would be minimal, and they would get a ton of publicity!
     
  40. GarBenjamin

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    Ha ha! I also do not understand emotional attachment to development tools. I appreciate it being available the same as all of the others I use for my job and personal projects. They all serve a functional purpose aiding the development process; not filling some emotional void. I have noticed some people seem very defensive and protective about Unity on these forums. For employees and even Asset creators to a degree I can understand it but for end users... it is an engine, an API. If it goes away tomorrow I think most of us will just find something else. That doesn't mean we don't value it. And I am not directing this at any one person.
     
  41. Teila

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    Yeah, I know. I have lost friends over it. Makes me sad. When one criticizes a tool, it is only their personal opinion. It doesn't reflect in anyway on those who use it and use it successfully. If tools are not critiqued and torn apart, and reviewed, then they don't get better.

    And the whole marketing thing...well, that is the way we work in our western capitalism society. :) Companies build demand in order to make money and lower prices or offering monetary incentives increases demand. Some of the same folks who revel in the wonders of capitalism are quick to attack those who practice it in all it's glory. ;)
     
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  42. Ryiah

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    Epic's stunt has the potential to recover every cent and more. Unity would only lose money with a similar approach.
     
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  43. GarBenjamin

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    Unity has plenty of market exposure already with masses (and I do mean masses) of people using Unity free. They have a very basic sales funnel in place already. All of the games out there showing the Unity logo as well as all of the blogs and so forth on game development that mention Unity help to direct prospects to the Unity site. Many of them will download the free Unity version. X percent of them will go on to buy the full Unity. I expect that X is a very low % but obviously do not know for certain. The thing they are missing from their sales funnel is a lower cost product. Typically in a well-designed sales funnel you'd have the freebie identifying prospective customers (sometimes this lowest end is an extremely low cost product with the idea being to completely filter out the "tire kickers/curiosity seekers" by introducing a tiny barrier in the form of the extremely low price that serves to qualify them as buyers). These people are then introduced to a low cost product. At some point they are introduced to the premium priced product. Of course, there can be many products in between that initial low cost and the ultimate premium priced product. But here there is none it is either completely free or premium. On the other hand from the little I know about UE4 they only have the one product with the one option of a monthly subscription. So all of this finally gets me to the point... since there is no freebie option available on the UE4 side to identify the prospective customers it is kind of more important for them to make a lot of noise, generate a lot of buzz like they are doing with their grants. To provide an incentive for people to immediately commit to that monthly subscription. Obviously, it is also a great thing to do when you are competing with such a popular engine as Unity3D. That is just my view on it all. Others may certainly view it differently.
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2015
  44. Teila

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    I think the problem is that the premium price for UT is out of range for many free users while UE4's is not. $19 a month is such that a large portion of the "free" base can afford it so while UE4 does not offer a free, they do offer an "almost" free and they offer free UE4 to students, which is a very large population. My son has been looking at colleges for his BS and most use UE4 now, while a few years ago, they used Unity. This is a disappointment to him. lol

    $19 a month is the price of a large pizza in many places. :) If a person can afford internet, they can afford that. But $75 is much higher, and it is locked in. I completely understand Unity's reason for this and totally support them for making this decision. They are not a huge Chinese company with some very large game companies footing the bill. I don't shop at Walmart so I get it.

    But....lots of people do shop at Walmart and lots of mom and pop shops have closed. I doubt this will happen to Unity because it has a lot of advantages over UE4 at the moment. But the argument that not having a free version hurts UE4 is rather weak, in my opinion. I guess time will tell.

    Oh, and wanted to add...UE4 really isn't $19 a month. You could pay once, cancel and then play with it for months before needing to update. In fact, you could spend $5 a month if you only update once every 4 months. :)
     
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