CARY – Epic Games is offering $100 million in grants to game developers, content creators and students who utilize the company’s Unreal Engine for games and other content. The name is appropriate: “MegaGrants.”

Epic CEO and founder Tim Sweeney announced the program today at the Game Developers Conference in Los Angeles. Epic is publisher of the globally popular Fortnite which has made Epic, which is privately held, worth several billion dollars based on analysis by Bloomberg news.

“This is no-strings-attached grant funding,” Sweeney said, according to Variety. “You don’t need to use our engine, it doesn’t need to be in our store.”

This is our way of sharing ‘Fortnite’s’ unbelievable success,” he added.

Unreal logo

Grants range from $5,000 to $500,000.

Epic also disclosed new game titles coming to its Epic Games Store, updates in its Unreal technology, and the news that it has 85 million players for titles at its store,

Unreal is one of the most popular development engines across game platforms around the world.

The grants “will cover a wide variety of endeavors to further strengthen creativity and innovation within the 3D community. ,” Epic spokesperson Dana Cowley explained in a blog.

“This includes projects built with Unreal Engine or developers enhancing open-source 3D content creation, whether or not it integrates with or relates to UE4.”

To applicants, Epic says: “Show us your projects and you could earn a financial grant to help fuel your success!”

Cowley added that “recipients will continue to own their IP and will be free to publish however they wish. Submissions will be evaluated, and grants awarded, on a continual rolling basis as funds allow, with no firm deadlines to submit.

Epic has offered grants to developers for several years, although in much smaller amounts. The $5 million program launched in 2015, and the final awards were made recently.

Information about the program is available online.

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