Epic Games has announced that it is offering the complete Unreal Engine 4 development suite for free to academic institutions.

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Educators and students will be given full access to UE4’s features and tools, documentation and tutorials, and regular ongoing updates through their registered institutions.“Nothing is stopping students from honing the skills needed to enter the range of fields using Unreal Engine technology, from entertainment software and film to visualization, healthcare simulation and military training,” Unreal Engine General Manager Ray Davis said in a statement. “Students who know Unreal Engine technology have a huge advantage when it comes to job placement.”By offering the development suite to students for free, Epic Games expects they will have better opportunities competing for jobs in game development on PC, console, VR, and mobile platforms as well as in filmmaking, healthcare, and military industries.Schools can register for access to the suite now and bypass the $19 per month fee announced at GDC 2014 , though any individual users who ship a game are still subject to the 5% royalty fee.Epic Games recently discussed new features in UE4 and it is being used to develop Epic Games’ upcoming sandbox survival game, Fortnite , as well as the free-to-play Unreal Tournament which is available for anyone with an UE4 subscription to play right now

Michael Martin is a freelance writer from Seattle who is hopelessly addicted to pop culture t-shirts. Send help on Twitter