Epic Games Will Raise Unreal Engine Price for Users Not in Gamedev
A week after laying off more than 800 employees, Epic Games has announced a plan to raise the price of Unreal Engine for users not working in professional gamedev.
At this year's Unreal Fest conference (via @ImmatureGamerX), Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney announced that starting next year, industries that are not gamedev will be able to access Unreal Engine exclusively through a seat-based enterprise software licensing model.
This means that companies will have to pay for a license for each employee using Unreal Engine for purposes other than video game development.
"This doesn't affect game developers, but one of the things we're going to change next year will be for industries other than gaming, such as automotive, etc., based on the Unreal Engine enterprise software licensing model," Sweeney explained.
Epic Games' helmsman did not reveal what the exact cost of the license would be, but assured that "it won't be extremely expensive or extremely cheap.".
This is how, as Sweeney stressed, Epic Games will avoid changing terms of use of Unreal Engine for game developers. They will continue to use the company's technology free of charge until they generate $1 million in revenue. In that case, Epic will start collecting 5% from developers for the use of Unreal Engine.
As a final reminder, Sweeney announced the changes to Unreal Engine prices a few days after the company, due to financial troubles, had to lay off more than 800 employees. At the time, Epic's head suggested that alternative solutions to the economic problem had been sought for a long time, but that job cuts were ultimately unavoidable.
