Epic Games to update Unreal Engine pricing for devs not making games
Developers not working in video games will soon pay a per-seat licensing fee to use Unreal Engine.
A week after laying off almost 900 employees, Epic Games announced that it's increasing the price to use Unreal Engine—just not for the game development community.
The news came from Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney himself in a presentation at Unreal Fest 2023. In a video captured by Fortnite Creative developer Immature (and spotted by Game World Observer), Sweeney explains that developers using Unreal Engine in the film, TV, automotive, and other industries can expect to start paying a per-seat licensing fee.
He claimed that the pricing model will not be "unusually expensive or unusually inexpensive," and that its pricing structure will be similar to subscription services like Maya or Photoshop. Sweeney said he wanted to announce these changes now in the name of "transparency."
He also shed some light on the business decisions that led to the company making unexpectedly significant business shifts in the last week. Apparently Epic Games began running into "financial problems" about 10 weeks ago, meaning that the company was facing some sort of financial downturn from late July through September.
Evidently, all of Epic Games' business had been "heavily funded by Fortnite" in the last six years, and different parts of the company became "disconnected" from their revenue streams. It adds some context to previous comments made by Sweeney about the impact of declined Fortnite revenue—if the company's signature game had started to not turn a profit, other parts of Epic Games may not have easily been able to make up for declining revenue.
Developers worried about the state of the Epic Games Store should take some relief from Sweeney's speech as well. He stated that the company will continue to develop and support the storefront, saying it is the "cure to the disease" supposedly infecting the video game industry.
