Crytek is looking to turn CryEngine into a subscription service, ostensibly to make it more readily available to independent developers. The company announced today at GDC 2014 that the next version of CryEngine will herald the launch of its new "Engine-As-A-Service" program. That means that, starting in May, developers will need to pay a monthly fee of $9.90/€9.90 per user to use the CryEngine game engine. These subscriptions will be royalty-free, and will afford developers access to the latest version of CryEngine. The news comes just hours after Epic's announcement that Unreal Engine 4 would be available via a similar subscription system, though Epic is charging developers $19/month per user in addition to five percent royalties on your game's gross sales revenue. The free version of the CryEngine SDK that is currently available for non-commercial development will remain free, but it will not include the new features that have been incorporated into the latest paid version of CryEngine. Much like Epic, Crytek is taking pains to portray its transition to a subscription-based licensing model as a step aimed at making its technology more readily available to a broader audience of creators, especially indie developers.