Updating Unreal Engine Pricing in Late April | Hacker News Reader

Updating Unreal Engine Pricing in Late April

unrealengine.com

58 pointssamspenc17 comments

Epic basically confirming details of what they had hinted at last year: "We are introducing a new seat-based Unreal Subscription when we release Unreal Engine 5.4. This new pricing of $1,850 per seat will apply to companies generating over $1 million USD in annual gross revenue who are not creating games."

This makes the pricing model for non-game users (e.g., film makers, VFX studios and architecture firms) similar to that for game creators, basically the software remains free for indie makers until $1 million USD in gross annual revenue.

Extremely fair imo

> You will only need to pay for seats if you meet all of the following criteria:

> - You are a company that generates over $1 million in annual gross revenue

> - You do not create games

> - And you do not create applications that are licensed to third-party end users and rely on Unreal Engine code at runtime

Am I reading it correctly that companies that create games are exempt for non-game-related uses? If so, does this just create an obvious loophole where a big movie studio can just "develop" some mobile game and continue to use it for free for their film-making?

It wouldn't surprise me if they've decided that it's better to keep the rules simple and leave loopholes than to try and chase down every last dollar in a way that pisses people off.

This is the PR announcement and not the legal agreement, possible they address this in the actual terms.

I think it's obvious that they mean if you use Unreal for non games you have to pay, even if you upload a binary to itch once a year.

I'd imagine if you're grossing over a million a year you aren't looking at loopholes to avoid paying a nominal amount if money.

Idk, I feel like corporations are always willing to throw away capex dollars, but are loathe to spend any opex, even when it would actually save money overall.

The moment you develop the game... "you create games."

Companies that create games must buy seats and pay a royalty after they make their first $1 million (not an annual thing, either from what I could tell). So you cross that threshold and you're on the hook for $50K + the cost of seats.

"non-games" makes sense since films/vfx don't generate the sales royalties that games do -- compared to the cut they take from successful games, this is actually really cheap. And it's a _lot_ cheaper than "no listed price; call us for a quote" licensing.

As this change mostly affects filmmakers, it's interesting timing that Unreal Engine got a shout-out during an Oscar thank you speech.

According to Epic, this is the first time that a film made in Unreal Engine 5 won an Oscar for Best Animated Short. ("WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko")

They announce the licensing changes many months ago, so it is certainly coincidental. I'm not aware of any production featuring Unreal Engine images that received an Oscar. Epic was super stoked by the news and so did we at Wētā FX! (I worked on the short).

Congratulations on the Oscar!

Thank you! :)

The most interesting takeaway for me is:

> For studios or companies purchasing more than ten Unreal Subscription seats, Epic Direct Support will be available to purchase for an additional $1,500 per seat annually.

So ballpark that to a minimum yearly spend of about $18k in order to access the UDN (what is referred to there as Epic Direct Support)?

This is interesting since normally the terms for what it would cost to get UDN access are not public and instead requires you to reach out to Epic first.

This is about synthetic training data generation as much as it is about films

What will their model generate?

I wish they'd offer some clarity on non-profit use. A client of mine uses it, but doesn't make money on what they release (although it does help facilitate donations).

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