This is to give smaller developers a ”financial footing” says Epic. Once a title earned $5,000 through wholesale they had to pay royalties, now its $50,000.
”We’re really excited about folks making some amazing things with UDK,” posted Epic VP Mark Rein on the official Epic Games forums.
”We realize that a lot of you are just started in the business so not having to pay royalties on your first $50,000 should help you get a financial footing toward building a quality game development business.” They have boosted the threshold tenfold.
Rein revealed that Epic only takes their cut once wholesale revenue of a title reaches the threshold, and not when the retail price tallies up. ”Whether you sell your product through digital distribution (or a retail location) the company doing the sale to the end user … takes a cut (typically around 30%) for their efforts,” he explained.
“The price they sell it for is called the retail price. The amount of money they pay to you on each sale is called the wholesale amount. When you pay us royalties you pay on the wholesale amount, i.e. the money you actually receive.”
The Unreal Development Kit is provided freely to anyone who wants to use it however if you plan on a commercial release for your project then it requires $99 per released title and then 25 percent in royalties to Epic Games once over the threshold.
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