UE4 was NOT free when I started. Plus it is a matter of use as to which costs more. 5% royalties is less if you don't make very many sales. I have three people on my team, and really only two of us heavily using Unity.
So If I bought two licenses that would set me back $3000 or a little more. 5% royalties from Unreal would cost me that IF I sold more than $60,000. If I use Unity and only make $60,000 I don't even have to buy a license so it is then $0.
I also had a lot of time invested in all the ins and outs of Unity. I like a lot that Unreal does but it would set me back quite a bit on relearning a lot of things.
I have a 3D RPG/RTS/Open World type project that I have tons of assets and stuff already purchased. Some of them I could make work with Unreal. We considered switching to Unreal for that. We realized we could get Unreal to do everything we wanted, but relearning all of the stuff we are planning would probably set us back 6 months or so. (It's a pretty complex project)
I may use Unreal for some projects in the future. I really like it. Yet the COST ASPECT and which costs the most is totally a matter of situation. Time is also a cost. I am not a USE UNITY fanboi. I am a person that uses the tools that work best for me in a given situation.
Did that help?
EDIT: Those images and videos in the post above are from early 2012.
EDIT 2: Up voted your reply. It IS a good question.
Clear point, ty. For new developers Unity look not really good. Money for base engine, money for plugins. All team need license and etc.
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It again depends on how many people. It also costs NOTHING if the FREE version works for you. It does have virtually every feature. You don't have to buy a license unless you gross over $100,000 in a year. So if you are poor have no income Unity actually costs less. If you have a big team and need to buy a lot of licenses it could cost more. If your game does really well Unreal will cost more. So it is a decision based upon use case. If I make $10,000 Unreal will cost me $500. (unless they added a rule for >$100,000 gross too) If I make $100,000 Unreal will cost me $5000 which is more than if I had to buy licenses for all 3 people I work with in Unity. If I made $200,000 then unreal costs me $10,000 yet unity still only costs me those 3 licenses. So it really does depend upon factors. Like I said I like Unreal. I know things that it has that are better than Unity and have had me considering switching for some projects. Yet, switching mid-project with a lot of time invested is kind of a dumb move for us. I like Unreal, I like Unity. Which is better really depends upon the team size, expected sales, and type of project. They are tools. I don't get hung up on which brand of hammer I use. I use the one that works best for me in my position at a given time.
EDIT: And competition between the game engines is GREAT for you and I. They will keep getting better and better. Win Win!
EDIT 2: I wanted to add... a big win for me in Unreal is the open source side. If they had been free and had the 5% thing they have now years ago when I started poking around with Unity I likely would have chosen Unreal and never looked back. Unfortunately, I was using Unity for a couple of years before Unreal, Cryengine, etc started catching on to the fact they should go free.
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