Crytek announces CryEngine subscription service for indies

Crytek is opening up its CryEngine development tools to indie developers through a new a subscription-based service, the studio has announced.

The new program allows independent studios to utilize all of the features available to the game engine for a monthly subscription fee of $9.90 per user.

"When we announced the new CRYENGINE this was our first step towards creating an engine as a service," director of business development Carl Jones stated.

"We are happy to announce now that the latest update of CRYENGINE will soon be available to all developers on a subscription basis. We are really excited to make CRYENGINE available to hundreds of thousands of developers working with Crytek to make awesome games."

The move is similar to Epic Games’ recently announced service for its Unreal Engine – though Epic is charging $19 a month, plus 5 per cent royalties on gross revenue.

The free CryEngine SDK is still available under its current terms, but those wanting to take advantage of new CryEngine features will need a subscription.