Epic Games updates Unreal Engine price point for non-game developers

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.

Changes to additional resources

As part of the $1850 annual fee for non-game developers, subscribers will also benefit from Epic’s Twinmotion real-time visualization tool and RealityCapture photogrammetry software — in addition to the primary 3D creation tool.

Epic Games further detailed it is bundling the additional resources ahead of a full migration into the Unreal Engine by the end of next year, but they will remain available separately at the annual cost of $445 a year for Twinmotion, while RealityCapture will command a fee of $1250.

Epic Games’ new pricing structure will only apply to content made using the latest version of Unreal Engine, 5.4. In a similar initiative to its rival competitor, Unity, anyone using 5.3 or previous versions will not be affected by the hikes until they upgrade.

Last month, Unity confirmed (then retracted) a price change of its own, that involved a controversial pay-per-download structure after a backlash from gamers.