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Amazon has just launched a competitor for Unity and Unreal, called Lumberjack. (I find the choice of name vaguely hilarious.)
Some (limited) actual info: http://www.polygon.com/2016/2/9/10949002/amazon-lumberyard-free-games-engine
Honestly, I'm still trying to learn Unity and I tend to think there are some really good reasons to start with that, mostly to do with flexibility. I would have skimmed on by except that, I gather from that link, Lumberjack will be free not just to develop on but to launch on. Amazon plans to make money off it from hosting web servers on a separate, related, service.
That could be interesting. I can't really prognosticate as to whether that model will work or not, but it does remove the annoying problem of developing a fairly cool little game that one then can't independently launch unless some publisher is willing to front $700+ for it, which isn't always the case. In some ways, as a consumer, I want more gatekeeping in the games market, not less. In other ways, having an outlet for small projects that might make, at best, a few hundred bucks isn't bad. I have a couple games on my hard-drive that for various reasons just weren't going to get the $700 in either a publishing deal or sales that would cover the cost of licensing Unity.
Some (limited) actual info: http://www.polygon.com/2016/2/9/10949002/amazon-lumberyard-free-games-engine
Honestly, I'm still trying to learn Unity and I tend to think there are some really good reasons to start with that, mostly to do with flexibility. I would have skimmed on by except that, I gather from that link, Lumberjack will be free not just to develop on but to launch on. Amazon plans to make money off it from hosting web servers on a separate, related, service.
That could be interesting. I can't really prognosticate as to whether that model will work or not, but it does remove the annoying problem of developing a fairly cool little game that one then can't independently launch unless some publisher is willing to front $700+ for it, which isn't always the case. In some ways, as a consumer, I want more gatekeeping in the games market, not less. In other ways, having an outlet for small projects that might make, at best, a few hundred bucks isn't bad. I have a couple games on my hard-drive that for various reasons just weren't going to get the $700 in either a publishing deal or sales that would cover the cost of licensing Unity.