• Epic to award $100 million in grants to game devs
    31 replies, posted
https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/20/tim-sweeney-announces-100-million-epic-megagrants-fund-for-game-developers/ Their previous grant 4 years was merely 5mil. While this is awesome news for for developers, this is just an idea on how rich Epic has become.
with no strings attached. we'll see
If they're going to start splashing around insane amounts of cash, they may as well use it for good. Unless their process for deciding is incredibly sketchy which is probably wouldn't be, this is an unconditionally good thing even if you can argue it's for PR or ulterior motives.
”no strings attached”, just a strong suggestion that maybe daddy is making an investment and you should pay it back with exclusivity *wink wink nudge nudge*
Last time it was exactly that.
Indeed.
They funded Smalland, so I guess they don't really do their due diligence with these grants.
Last time the Epic Store wasn’t a thing and it was much less money.
Like, instead of bribing people to use your shitty platform, why not do what everyone else does when they make a fortune and buy a stupidly big yacht or a fast car or some stupid piece of art
Since when does "supporting" mean "bribing".
I mean.... the string is that you have to use UE4. they get a cut of that if it makes enough money, and most indies who use UE4 will probably end up using it again for another project.
UE4 also tries to lock you into Epic's ecosystem. You don't HAVE to, but you have to do it yourself, so many indies after going to just take the default option out of the box instead. So that's a pretty thick and rough string attached.
If you can't beat them, spend more money than them and just buy success.
Fortnite caused the PC apocalypse
100 Million Dollars for Indie Devs to create games with no strings attached. Well with April Fools around the corner, it wouldnt surprise me if there was fine print that all games made with that grant will be an exclusive title, lol.
Without the insidious undertones of the Epic Store, this would just be Epic doing what Epic do. I'm old enough to remember the Make Something Unreal competitions which gave us gems like Red Orchestra.
This coupled with Outer Worlds and Quantic Dream games hitting the Epic storefront make it seem like they're desperately trying to one-up Steam for getting Halo Master Chief Collection. The thing is - if this is indeed the case - Halo is arguably the most sought after property for a PC port and is liable to attract droves. I don't think anything Epic try will even make a dent in the prospect of Halo on Steam, and it seems like many people are willing to wait the extra year or skip over a game entirely if it hits the Epic storefront.
As said previously it basically is. They have to use Unreal which by default ties them to Epic's environment unless the dev works to remove it.
As someone who's been working with UE4 for two years, Unreal (the engine) in no way has any integration with the Epic store as of this post.
This is what I loved about Epic, what they do with UE and the things around it. Thats where Fortnite money is spend well. Too bad a lot of that just feels tainted by the whole Epic Store shit show.
oh cool, so now i can play those "epic store exclusives" for "free" without feeling bad.
Oh god Red Orchestra 3 is going to be an Epic exclusive isn't it?
so if we remake JBmod and put it on epic store we can split to 100 mill, lets get started guys
I mean it's not like they need to attach strings. This will generate plenty of good will to these devs and they'll probably want to do Epic some favours in return.
If they're funding the development of a game, then what's the problem with making the game exclusive?
"sure you can put your game anywhere but cmon we're buddies, we give you more money too!"
When you mention the brand Epic and the word grant in the same sentence.
See, I don't have an issue with this. If they're funding development for games from the very start; they have every right to make it exclusive. Valve did the same thing. My issue is grabbing properties months before release or years after development have begun and on pace to exceed expectations.
On one hand; the whole shady business with Epic and Tencent can fuck right off. On the other hand, these guys are giving indie devs $100 million to fund the game of their dreams that people will hopefully like once it goes gold. Yeah only having to use Unreal 4 only may seem like a deal breaker, but given that Unreal Engine isn't just the "Gears of War" engine anymore it seems like there are more chances than ever for indie devs then back then when you really needed an audience and backers willing to put faith into your game. Plus the idea of being able to back educational and academic driven projects is pretty much a charity.
Definitely, Tripwire already moved their Maneater game to the Epic store.
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