TECH NEWS – Developers have been promised no changes to the model. However, those who use the Unreal Engine for non-gaming purposes will be charged on a “seat-based” licensing model.

Last year, during Unreal Fest 2023, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney announced that those who use the Unreal Engine for non-game development will soon have to pay. At the time, Sweeney said that developers should not expect any changes, and that has been confirmed by the company. So any developer who doesn’t reach $1 million over the lifetime of a game won’t have to pay. Those who do will be asked by Epic for a 5% royalty share.

But the technology isn’t just being used for games. It’s also being used in production, and in many cases there are no video game royalties, so Epic Games doesn’t see a dime from those users. When Unreal Engine 5.4 is released in April, game developers will be stuck with the old rules, but the rest of us will have to start using the “seat-based” model from the moment our annual gross revenue reaches $1 million. You will be charged $1,850 per “seat” per year, which means that each employee will be charged that much per year for using the engine. For example, if 10 employees use it, the annual fee is $18,500. Voltaku is using the engine for a TV show based on the comic book Killtopia, so that media company will also have to pay.

Epic said in a statement, “If you’re developing a non-game application that is licensed to third-party end users and relies on Unreal Engine code at run-time, you’ll need to pay royalties just like game developers. You will pay a 5% royalty on products that exceed $1 million in lifetime gross revenue.”

The company’s move is also positive because last year Unity made a decision that developers would have to pay PER INSTALL. Unity backed down, but many people switched technologies instead, which is understandable because the developer community got pretty frustrated…

Source: VGC