Epic Games announced on Monday it is reducing the cost of licensing its Unreal Engine technology for use in products outside of videogames. The company is shifting to a graduated plan with pricing tiers that provide up to a 75% reduction in the fees for non-gaming apps, with a free tier for organizations whose revenues or funded amounts are under the new thresholds.
Under the updated system, developers who make under $1 million in apps or games using the Unreal Engine in the past 12 months will get a free license. Any developer making between $1 million and $10 million will pay a 5% royalty, while developers making over $10 million in products will pay a larger fee—10% of revenues generated by the use of the technology.
The move is a significant step in a long-term effort to make Unreal Engine more accessible to developers who use the platform for immersive experiences such as virtual reality, education and training, and architecture.
Epic Games has partnered with several major developers in the past year to make it easier for them to use Unreal Engine for their products. In April, Epic partnered with Autodesk to create a version of the engine tailored to the architecture and engineering industries, allowing users to quickly create, visualize and interact with 3D models and other data.
The company has also released updated versions of the engine for mixed reality applications and for its popular digital painting app, Quixel. In October, Epic Games announced the opening of a research lab to create the next generation of immersive experiences using Unreal Engine.
The changes made to the Unreal Engine licensing fees are an important move for the company, as more developers seek to take advantage of the technology. By making it easier for non-gaming developers to use the engine, Epic Games is poised to open up more opportunities for developers and expand the use of Unreal Engine.
