Epic Games revealed plans of an open development process for a new Unreal Tournament where the community will help build the new game.
"From the very first line of code, the very first art created and design decision made, development will happen in the open, as a collaboration between Epic, UT fans and UE4 developers. We'll be using forums for discussion, and Twitch streams for regular updates."
The game is being developed for Linux, Mac and PC and the idea is to have it be free, not free-to-play. This means that everything Epic release for the game will be free without any charges. Instead they hope to make money eventually through a marketplace for user created stuff.
"We'll eventually create a marketplace where developers, modders, artists and gamers can give away, buy and sell mods and content. Earnings from the marketplace will be split between the mod/content developer, and Epic. That's how we plan to pay for the game."
Similar to how Valve treat their free titles on Steam. It's an interesting approach and hopefully there will be something for gamers to try in a not-so-distant future. It is clearly also meant to sell-in Unreal Engine 4 as the tool of choice for new and aspiring game designers.