TapTechNews October 3rd news, Epic announced a new initiative named LaunchEverywherewithEpic at the UnrealFestSeattle2024 event, aiming to provide lower licensing fees for cross-platform games developed using the Unreal Engine. Starting from January 1, 2025, If developers list their games on the Epic Games Store, the licensing fee will be reduced from 5% to 3.5%.
Currently, the licensing model of the Unreal Engine stipulates that developers do not need to pay when the total game revenue does not reach 1 million US dollars (TapTechNews note: currently about 7.027 million RMB), and if it exceeds this amount, a 5% licensing fee is required, while games sold on the Epic Games Store do not need to pay royalties.
Epic Games stated that considering the current challenges faced by the game industry, the company is improving the engine and store to support developers to better reach players. The new plan requires that the game must be listed on the Epic Games Store, and can enjoy the 3.5% licensing fee discount whether it is simultaneously released on other PC platforms such as Steam or home consoles and mobile platforms. If the game is delisted from the Epic Games Store, the licensing fee will revert to 5%.
It is worth noting that the LaunchEverywherewithEpic plan will be implemented starting in January 2025, but iOS games are temporarily not included. This is because Epic Games is protesting against Apple's policy of levying an Apple tax on third-party App developers in the EU region.