Epic Games Rewards Simultaneous and Exclusive Releases
– 1 min read
It was probably the most important announcement at the Unreal Fest 2024 keynote: Tim Sweeny announced the launch of the Launch Everwhere with Epic programme at the turn of the year. Subject to certain conditions, it provides for lower fees for Unreal Engine games.
Specifically, the licence fee will be reduced from 5 per cent to 3.5 per cent for all eligible games developed with Unreal Engine that are released on the Epic Game Store from 2025 onwards. However, the reduction of the fees depends on the release strategy of the developer or publisher. Epic Games ties the reduced revenue share to the condition that the game be released at least simultaneously in the Epic Game Store if it appears on PC, Mac or Android.
According to the manufacturer, the fact that Epic Games is currently still excluding iOS from the conditions is due to the economically unbearable ‘core technology fee’ that Apple charges for apps that are marketed through competing stores. Epic Games is currently in legal disputes with Apple in this regard. Should the circumstances change and Epic Games also demand a parallel release in the Epic Game Store for iOS games, they want to inform partners at least four months in advance.
It is interesting to note that the reduced fees also apply to console games. At least, Epic Games does not yet offer these in its own store. If console games are also released for PC or Android and are then not also published in the Epic Game Store, the fees for console games will rise again to the previous share of 5 percent.
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