Epic Games has announced a new price structure, which will charge non-game developers an annual subscription fee of $1850 “per seat” to access its Unreal Engine.
In a deviation from the royalty-based system utilized for game developers, the change will apply from late April with the rollout of Unreal Engine 5.4.
Developers will still be bound by Epic’s 5% royalty on products earning over $1 million in lifetime gross revenues. The per-seat (effectively per-user) arrangements apply to non-game operatives who use Unreal Engine to produce content such as TV shows, films, and other media.
An exemption from the charges will be granted for smaller companies that earn less than $1 million in annual gross revenue, as well as students, educators, and “hobbyists,” as detailed in the statement from the Fortnite developer. Free use will be available for the companies responsible for plug-ins used in Unreal Engine. However, they will still enjoy a cut of proceeds from the revenue share model embedded within Unreal Engine Marketplace.