Go read! I think it could be very interesting to see what kinds of things come out of this in the next few years. Building a game? Use the same game assets to create a TV show, animated short, or animated film to promote the game. Unreal looks amazing these days and I think it competes with studios that have their own custom animation software (not that I work in that field so who knows).

http://www.polygon.com/2016/5/6/11605748/epic-games-sequencer-engine-film-tv

Go read! I think it could be very interesting to see what kinds of things come out of this in the next few years. Building a game? Use the same game assets to create a TV show, animated short, or animated film to promote the game. Unreal looks amazing these days and I think it competes with studios that have their own custom animation software (not that I work in that field so who knows).

http://www.polygon.com/2016/5/6/11605748/epic-games-sequencer-engine-film-tv

Using broader assets, I mean. SFM's already been used by fans to create some pretty awesome stuff, and I've always felt that given how great some in-game stuff looks, it's a wonder that it hasn't been used to make a movie, since the rendering seems cheaper/faster than current animation studios (for example, the Hellbade game that uses the Unreal engine to render capture performances in realtime).

Heck, some games (such as The Order: 1886, running on the RAD Engine 4.0) already blur the line between movie and games pretty well.

Unreal looks amazing these days and I think it competes with studios that have their own custom animation software (not that I work in that field so who knows).

There is high end custom software already, but that is typically for integration purposes. For instance, you want to be able to turn your previs effects into real effects without having to do a ton of extra work, and VXF studios have fairly specific workflows. I can see real time animation software begin very useful for creating and planning blocking, and preplanning action scenes, or for use on moderate to low budget films.

Did you see the bit in the article where they mention they can change assets on the fly, so the princess in the movie is wearing the same princess dress you just bought for your little girl?

That's some manipulative stuff. Imagine if the princess is wearing the more expensive dress you *almost* bought? Now your daughter is going to scream for it because it's the one from the movie. Tailored ads are bad enough, but linking the tailored products to emotional tie-ins with your entertainment is next level creep.

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That being said, the film editing biz has been ripe for a new player for a couple of years now, and this seems like a powerful tool that could step in.