They likely won't ever escape it. Unity entered the market as a free, batteries-included game engine. It rose to prominence in the indie community because it wa

They likely won't ever escape it. Unity entered the market as a free, batteries-included game engine. It rose to prominence in the indie community because it was free and it had a LOT of user-generated materials. Their whole brand has this foundation of being friendly to small developers. You take that away in even the smallest way and they have nothing to stand on. By comparison, Epic didn't have that sort of baggage. They were a big company with a big engine made for big games. And over time they made that engine cheaper and more accessible to smaller devs.