As we know now, the game is going to be "free, but not free-to-play, just free". The wording sounds confusing, but it seems that they just wanted to emphasize that it won't include freemium or pay-to-win crap.
Of course, the game isn't going to be free software in Stallman terms, but the development is as open as it has never been before. Again, it's all great, but they picked a little bit wrong terms. But that's not really the problem.
They also mentioned that community content makers would be able to sell their content (maps, characters, weapons, mutators, etc.) or give them away. With first option, part of the money goes to Epic. That's, apparently, how Epic Games want to make the profit.
It hasn't stated in the context of new UT yet (unless I missed something), but it's kinda implied that content making would require an active UE4 subscription (or at least subscription bought at least once).
If that's true, look at that from the eyes of potential modder. Suppose he wants to give the content for free. Even though UE4 subscription isn't particularly expensive, it still means that he supports another's person/company work by making content not for free, but on the contrary, by paying money for that. I doubt many people would do this. Enthusiasm has its limits.
If he doesn't want to give content for free, and wants to sell it, we get a different problem. The game essentially becomes "freemium". Not in the worst sense of the word, but it's still kind of "DLC milking". For some reason, I'm afraid that not many people would buy even anything. Moreoever, if there's going to be a lot of great content (and I'm sure there's), almost no-one will buy everything. Thus, community becomes fragmented.
Not to mention that there's no guarantee that enough people will buy the content at all, so it's still risky to the content author.
How it's going to work out? Here's some of my random thoughts (options):
Of course, the game isn't going to be free software in Stallman terms, but the development is as open as it has never been before. Again, it's all great, but they picked a little bit wrong terms. But that's not really the problem.
They also mentioned that community content makers would be able to sell their content (maps, characters, weapons, mutators, etc.) or give them away. With first option, part of the money goes to Epic. That's, apparently, how Epic Games want to make the profit.
It hasn't stated in the context of new UT yet (unless I missed something), but it's kinda implied that content making would require an active UE4 subscription (or at least subscription bought at least once).
If that's true, look at that from the eyes of potential modder. Suppose he wants to give the content for free. Even though UE4 subscription isn't particularly expensive, it still means that he supports another's person/company work by making content not for free, but on the contrary, by paying money for that. I doubt many people would do this. Enthusiasm has its limits.
If he doesn't want to give content for free, and wants to sell it, we get a different problem. The game essentially becomes "freemium". Not in the worst sense of the word, but it's still kind of "DLC milking". For some reason, I'm afraid that not many people would buy even anything. Moreoever, if there's going to be a lot of great content (and I'm sure there's), almost no-one will buy everything. Thus, community becomes fragmented.
Not to mention that there's no guarantee that enough people will buy the content at all, so it's still risky to the content author.
How it's going to work out? Here's some of my random thoughts (options):
- Donations to content authors. I already suggested the idea on the official forums. It's a good improvement over plain "give away", but donations are obviously not reliable. It's even questionable that many people would get those 19$ per month.
- Mod authoring tools actually won't cost 19$ per month. It's possible that later down the development they'll find a way to release the editor separately, like it has always been done with previous games. Maybe even something can be done about mutators. The problem is, game would be simply unprofitable for Epic this way. Or, perhaps, there would be lightweight engine subscription for mod authors. That alleviates the problems mentioned above somewhat, but not completely.
