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Comment by Tloewald | Hacker News Reader

The 5% is a bit misleading too because it's 5% of "sticker price" (what they call "gross revenue" which means purchase price not including sales tax). So for a $10 iTunes game they get $0.50 (5% of what Apple gets) and not $0.35 (5% of what you get).

This is particularly bad for retail games where you're getting 30% or less of retail price (and that's hardly pure profit).

Unity, in comparison, costs more per month (or $750 per upgrade cycle) but no revenue share at all.

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I believe they are willing to make exceptions for certain titles: https://www.unrealengine.com/custom-licensing

Indeed, if you're writing a AAA title you'll probably go for a one-off six figure licensing fee instead of 5% of back end, but that's hardly going to be more attractive than these terms. I imagine Rovio or the Candy Crush guys might similarly prefer a one-off license deal (were they to use Unreal).

You dont get access to the source with Unity though, which is a huge thing. You can get Sourcecode licenses for Unity but thats where they start charging big money. The same is true if you want to publish for consoles.

Wonder where DLC comes in? 5% of that as well? Or advertising?

Game was free... DLC packs are $10 per. Sorry Unreal... no monies for you.

From the new user faq:

What about downloadable content, in-app purchases, microtransactions, virtual currency redemption, and subscription fees, as well as in-app advertising and affiliate program revenue? Revenue from these sources is included in the gross revenue calculation above.

Are any revenue sources royalty-free? No royalties are due on the following:

Ancillary products, including t-shirts, CDs, plushies, action figures and books. The exception is items with embedded data or information, such as QR codes, that affect the operation of the product. Consulting and work-for-hire services using the engine. This applies to architects using the engine to create visualizations as well as consultants receiving a development fee. Linear media, including movies, animated films and cartoons distributed as video. Cabinet-based arcade games and amusement park rides. Truly free games and apps (with no associated revenue).

Ahh good catch. Didn't see that in the blurb above. Good call.

For retail titles I don't think your number is correct. You're not operating the retail store, so that 30% is all the revenue you get and their 5% would be 5% of that 30%, because the other 70% is entirely devoured by the middle-men.

The things that make up your revenue vs profit gap are probably things like salaries, insurance, and (in the case where you have no traditional publisher) marketing. Even now when an indie game is sold at retail, the retail side of things is typically handled by a publisher and those people handle the retail income and distribute the cut to the developer.

Thanks for pointing this out, I thought they could only serve 20 customers with this scheme.

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