Business or Corporate usage of Unreal Engine presentations for advertising

anonymous_user_f0c82cf5 · October 22, 2019, 5:45pm

Hello, I’ve been learning the Unreal Engine via online tutorials. I’d like to discuss using Unreal to create presentations for customers with my company. I’m sure I will need to know how much my company will need to pay Epic Games. I see there is a 5% royalty. How does this apply if I were to create a presentation in Unreal? Would Epic require 5% of everything we sold to the client based on using the Unreal Engine as part of the presentation? I wouldn’t be selling the application but rather using content created in unreal to advertise. I just need to understand how much this will cost before I pitch to my boss.

darthviper107 · October 22, 2019, 9:14pm

If you are making non-interactive media (images/videos) then you won’t owe any royalties for images or videos that you produce using Unreal Engine.

anonymous_user_f0c82cf5 · October 23, 2019, 12:23am

What about a presentation a client can sit in and listen to a presentation in VR? So if I imported a model of a product in 3d I developed? This wouldn’t be a video but rather a VR environment experiencing a virtual presentation?

darthviper107 · October 23, 2019, 3:26pm

I think you’d have to contact Epic on that one, it’s a more difficult case since you’re not selling what you made with UE4 directly but you are using it to make money.

MothDoctor · October 23, 2019, 6:34pm

That’s the entire point of Unreal Studio subscription. You’d pay like 20 (or more) dollars monthly per user. No royalty costs because it’s impossible to say what is the Unreal-generated “income” here.
Unreal Studio is free for charge for a limited time (beta phase), so non-gaming industries couldn’t resist from using Unreal.

Just check what’s displayed at the Unreal Studio overview page: “100% royalty-free license”

darthviper107 · October 23, 2019, 7:09pm

Unreal Studio is an addon for Unreal Engine, it’s not a separate version of the engine, licensing terms for Unreal Engine still apply.

anonymous_user_f0c82cf5 · October 23, 2019, 8:49pm

Okay it sounds like I should just pay for the unreal studio subscription and then ask support for the cost of what I would like to do. I just don’t want to violate rules

darthviper107 · October 24, 2019, 3:39pm

Unless you need the features of Unreal Studio then don’t waste your time, just contact epic licensing about your case and see what they say

MothDoctor · October 24, 2019, 4:07pm

Actually, there’s a different license, different EULA. It’s not just a paid plugin.
It couldn’t be “100% royalty-free license” on a regular UE4 license which obligates to pay 5% of the store price.

The source code isn’t separate, they don’t make development more difficult, that’s right

Unreal Studio caters to the needs of professionals in the architecture, design visualization, product design, manufacturing, and linear entertainment sectors. Other than a few specific restricted uses of Unreal Engine (e.g. live combat use), we place no restrictions on what you can do with products that you make using Unreal Studio that do not themselves include any portion of the Unreal Engine or require the Unreal Engine to run.
If your use of the Unreal Engine requires you to distribute any portion of Unreal Engine or relies on the Unreal Engine to run, under the Unreal Studio EULA, you can use Unreal Engine in many ways, including:

within your corporate group, including for customer-facing uses;

for custom consulting and work-for-hire made specifically for a particular client’s use, including customer-facing uses by the client’s corporate group;

to make, distribute, and monetize non-interactive linear media, such as movies, animated films, and cartoons; and

to make and broadly distribute products that are not themselves sold or monetized, even if you use them to help sell or monetize your other products.

That’s just some of what you can do with Unreal Studio. You can read more about the specifics here.

anonymous_user_f0c82cf5 · October 26, 2019, 2:44pm

Thanks Dr Ergot I think you answered my question