Epic confirms its new Unreal Engine pricing, keeps its promise not to change it for game developers

Epic Games has detailed its upcoming pricing changes for Unreal Engine, and in doing so has kept its promise to keep the situation the same for game developers.

During the Unreal Fest 2023 conference last year, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney announced that the company would start charging for the use of Unreal Engine outside of video game development.

Sweeney promised at the time that this wouldn’t change for game developers, and this has now been confirmed.

Game developers can currently use Unreal Engine for free until a product they release earns $1 million in lifetime gross revenue, at which point Epic will start taking a 5% cut.

However, Unreal Engine has a variety of non-gaming applications, such as manufacturing, and since many of these uses don’t result in video game royalties, Epic currently makes no money from these users.

When Unreal Engine 5.4 is released in late April, developers working on video games will have the same terms as before, meaning they’ll still be able to use it for free for their first $1 million of revenue per product, followed by a 5% royalty.

Companies in non-game industries, however, will have to switch to a ‘seat-based’ licensing model if they generate over $1 million in annual gross revenue.

The annual cost will be $1,850 per ‘seat’, meaning companies will have to pay that amount every year for every employee using Unreal Engine.

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

Epic’s decision to stick to its promise will be a relief for the development community, which was last year hit with Unity’s announcement that it would start charging developers every time a game that uses its engine is installed.

Despite a subsequent apology followed by an attempt to partially walk back these plans, much of the development community remains frustrated at the changes to the terms of using Unity, with some saying at the time that it would affect their future projects.