No bias. If you sell a Unity game, the fee to Epic is 12%. If you sell an Unreal... (2024)

laythea on Dec 5, 2018 | next [–]

This does not detract from the fact that it is offering an unreal developer better terms than a unity dev.

gamblor956 on Dec 5, 2018 | parent | next [–]

No, they are not. The Epic store takes 12% whatever engine you use. They are simply waiving the 5% unreal engine royalty to unreal developers so they don't pay more than 12%.

tokyodude on Dec 5, 2018 | root | parent | next [–]

Game budget $200k. Team 3 people

 Unreal Engine: +$200k -$24k 12% epic store fee -0 5% epic fee (would be $10k) ------ $176k income Unity Engine: +$200k -$24k 12% epic store fee -$3.6k 3 copies of unity pro for $200k budget game ------ $172.4k income (-4.6k vs unreal)

If you publish on Steam then the numbers change

 Unreal Engine: +$200k -$60k 30% steam fee -$10 5% epic fee ------ $130k income Unity Engine: +$200k -$60k 30% steam fee -$3.6k 3 copies of unity pro for $200k budget game ------ $136.4k income (+6.4k vs unreal)

chii on Dec 5, 2018 | prev [–]

You forgot to mention the Unity cut in your sum.

Epic is certainly not making the store engine neutral. It costs less to use unreal than unity.

naikrovek on Dec 5, 2018 | parent | next [–]

It isn't Epic's fault that Unity doesn't have a royalty program.

Unity doesn't get a "cut" of your game profits, anyway. They get $1500/year/developer.

gamblor956 on Dec 5, 2018 | parent | prev [–]

Unity is royalty-free altogether, you pay a subscription for the development tools (think Adobe CC or MS Office365) and get all upgrades during your subscription. You can alternatively not pay a subscription fee at all, and accept certain restrictions on your engine's capabilities, mostly on the use of enterprise-level features an indie developer wouldn't have the resources to use anyway.

So, by eliminating the 5% engine royalty for its own store, Epic is making Unreal also free and thus engine choice is not a deciding factor in whether to use Epic's store.

IOW/tldr: Unity and Unreal cost the same amount of money to use and license if you sell through the Epic store.

tokyodude on Dec 5, 2018 | root | parent [–]

> You can alternatively not pay a subscription fee at all, and accept certain restrictions on your engine's capabilities

Just fyi: that is not how the unity license works. Unity's license is if your company makes >= $100k a year you're required to buy the $400 per seat license. If your company makes >= $200k year you're required to by the $1500 per seat license. Period. So for example if you're employee of Google and in your 20% time you download Unity you are not allowed to use it for free. Google makes X billion a year. That's greater than $200k a year. All employees of Google who download Unity for work related purposes are required to have the $1500 per year seat license.

This has nothing to do with whether or not you publish a game. Unity is sold similar to Photoshop. It's a subscription. The only difference is unlike Photoshop, Unity has a free tier for people and companies that make less than $100k a year.

From the unity site

Free version eligibility: I or my company generate annual revenues or raised funds less than $100k

Plus version eligibility: I or my company generate annual revenue or funds raised of $200k or less

gamblor956 on Dec 7, 2018 | root | parent [–]

You're not required to buy the $1500 license unless your company has already made $200k. If your first game goes bonkers and sells $1 million on the free version, you do not have to pay $1500 for the Plus version unless you make DLC or a new game after your bonanza. The license is prospective, not retrospective.

Other than that, you've just restated what I already said. Unity provides the tools on subscription, but does not charge a royalty anymore.