Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M
Commoditize one's compliments: <a href="https://jasongriffey.net/wp/2012/04/19/commoditizing-our-complements/" rel="nofollow">https://jasongriffey.net/wp/2012/04/19/commoditizing-our-com...</a><p>Unreal Engine, like Unity, right now has to be used with Autodesk products like 3DS Max or Maya, or at least that is the case with the large majority of professionals.  This is an impediment to using Unreal Engine and thus makes Epic Games sort of dependent on Autodesk.<p>There is probably no coincidence that the new general manager of Unreal Engine is an ex-Autodesk SVP, Marc Petit, who used to be in charge of Maya, 3DS Max, etc for a decade (<a href="https://www.awn.com/news/marc-petit-leaves-autodesk" rel="nofollow">https://www.awn.com/news/marc-petit-leaves-autodesk</a>).  He definitely sees the value of building up Blender to remove the dependence of Unreal Engine on expensive tools from other vendors.