Epic Games is raising the price of its Unreal Engine for developers outside the gaming industry.
Speaking during a presentation at Unreal Fest 2023, as captured by Fortnite Creative developer ImmatureGamerX on social media and spotted by Game World Observer, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney revealed that from next year, industries outside game development will only be able to access Unreal Engine via a seat-based enterprise software licensing model.
He clarified that the licensing model would not be “unusually expensive or inexpensive” and would work similarly to Maya and Photoshop.
Terms have yet to be announced, but Sweeney wanted to discuss the change “for transparency,” explaining that it was necessary “to bring our engine revenue back and associated with the teams that are doing the work in the industries.”
The decision came after Epic realised it was “running into a financial problem that we had to solve quickly,” according to Sweeney, which included laying off around 830 people last week.
“Everyone in the company is working to figure out how we are going to rebalance our priorities and retask the teams in order to serve all your needs,” he said.
“Going through these pains has caused us to look at every part of our business and ask very hard questions of ourselves.”
Sweeney also clarified that in light of discussions around engine royalties regarding the recent Unity controversy, the only conversations that Epic has had regarding their 5% revenue share model is how they can lower it.
“We’ve had those discussions a number of times, including recently, and the recent discussions concluded with, ‘No, we really need the money’,” he explained. “But that’s not necessarily the case forever.”
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