Source 2 Will Also Be Free

jones_supa writes Valve is officially debuting its Source 2 engine at GDC this week alongside a host of other new technologies, and it's expected to launch at a competitive price: free. The news of its release coincides with Epic making Unreal Engine 4 free-to-download and Unity announcing a full-featured free version of Unity 5. Valve is making a show of marketing Source 2 not just to developers, but game creators of all stripes — including Steam Workshop creators. "With Source 2, our focus is on increasing creator productivity," stated Valve engineer Jay Stelly in a press release confirming the launch. "Given how important user generated content is becoming, Source 2 is designed not for just the professional developer, but enabling gamers themselves to participate in the creation and development of their favorite games." It's worth noting that Valve also plans to release a version of Source 2 that's compatible with Vulkan, the open-standard graphics API that's considered heir apparent to OpenGL.

Comments

Smart

[Limekiller42]

Valve is smart in that they are in the business of content creation (it's own inventory of Valve games) as well as content delivery (Steam). They've made the decision to give up some revenue on the engine sales side to almost certainly gain more future income on the content delivery side. It also seems wise from the standpoint of just having more cool games out there which expands the market for gaming in general and that certainly benefits Valve's Steam product. It's like when Elon Musk offered his patents up for use by others. It's a nice thing to do, but it was also smart from a business standpoint to grow the electronic car market from a niche market to something more broad based (and profitable to be in).

Re:Smart

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/03/04/source-2-is-actually-free-like-for-free/

"Unlike Unity’s (much lowered) subscription rates (for larger teams), and Epic’s revenue cut of successful projects, Valve won’t be asking for any money at all. Well, sort of They just require that the game be launched on Steam, along with anywhere else you might want to sell it."

Source 3

[BenJeremy]

I expect that Source 3 will be able to develop games for mobile, like UE4 and Unity.

Of course, being third in a Valve series, we all know how this story ends.

Re:FREE free or "free with strings attached"?

[VGPowerlord]

I'm going to toss a big [Citation needed] and at the same time point out that Source 1 doesn't have this requirement for its free version.

As an example, the original mod version of The Stanley Parable was distributed through ModDB.

Then again, Source 1's free version has licensing terms that prevent you from selling anything you produce with it at all.

Re:Pales to UE4

[VGPowerlord]

UE4 is the better engine

Really? Can you provide comparisons?

Actually, I'll answer that for you:

No, you can't, because Source 2 isn't out yet.

If you're comparing UE4 with Source 1, I'd like to point out that while Source has been updated over the years, its core technology is still a decade behind UE4's.

Re:FREE free or "free with strings attached"?

[Gaygirlie]

It's free, but you are only allowed to distribute through Steam (meaning Valve gets 30-40% of your revenue).

No, you must also distribute through Steam, not only. Big difference.

Re:FREE free or "free with strings attached"?

[bistromath007]

Yes it is. It doesn't do any of the content delivery, since there's nothing there you can play on Android anyway, but I can log in, perform account management, buy stuff, tell steam to install something to my desktop if it's on, use the friends list.

Re:FREE free or "free with strings attached"?

[Anonymous Coward]

citation provided. I believe that this is the requirement GP was referring to:

Q. Can I sell my Source Engine game on Steam?
A. Yes, but there are a few requirements:

• You will need to complete an additional agreement for distributing a paid Source Engine product on Steam.
• If you are using the RAD tools included with the Source SDK, you will need to contact RAD for information and cost associated with licensing MILES and/or BINK.
• For any Source Engine game that charges money, Havok needs to be paid a licensing fee of $25,000 for the physics engine. You will need to pay this fee up front before making your game available for sale on Steam.
• You can only sell your Source Engine game via Steam unless you get a full Source Engine license.

That says that if you sell your Source 1 game on Steam you must either pay for a full Source Engine licence or you can't sell it anywhere other than Steam. (There's no mention on whether you can sell it outside Steam if it's not on Steam at all though)

As for The Stanley Parable HL2 mod, that's not a counterexample because that was a free mod - it wasn't being sold from Steam or from elsewhere. What you see there on ModDB are free downloads.

Re:Open Worlds

[Ziggitz]

Kerbal Space Program actually has a very small map. It only renders terrain and physics objects within 2000 meters of the ship you're flying, everything else is skybox. If you ever build a reasonably large space station you'll get huge fps drop. Don't get me wrong I love KSP to death, but your statement is not accurate.