Crowdfunding fee

I have a question. :stuck_out_tongue:
Do I need to pay 5% fee to Epic if I got something on the Kickstarter or IndieGoGo and all of my backers would gain acces to the full game regardless of the money they donated.
I know that this is already in the EULA but I am asking this because I usually don’t speak english so I am not sure if I understand it correctly.

You would need to pay royalty for only the cost of the game

So for example if someone pays $20 and gets the game then you owe royalty on $20
If someone pays $40 and gets the game and a T-Shirt then you owe royalty on $20 (the value of the game)

So I need to pay them,ok thanks. :smiley:
I got few more questions,how can I send that 5% and do I need to pay 5% only that one month when I get the money and of course when the game is released?

But who’s to say that the game is worth $20? :stuck_out_tongue:

What if the tiers say this:

$0 - You didn’t donate
$50 - You get the game ($1 value) and your name in the credits
$100 - You get all previous tiers, + a free poster.

Sounds like a great way to get sued by Epic.

I guess it would look a bit shady if you then released the game on Steam or anywhere else with a $20 price tag though :stuck_out_tongue:

Probably :smiley:

I think in that case you have to notify Epic what the value of your game is, because that’s still something where you’re selling the game and have to pay some amount of royalties.

Agreed. I think this is where that ‘always talked about never seen’ legal dept would flex their muscles and ascertain the real value at which you’re selling the game.

If you read engine EULA, it plainly says that you’re required to keep track of your finances and should provide those records to epic when they ask. So that is not going to work.

I think it would do well for Unreal to weigh in directly on this in the EULA, but in general I think you should act as ethically as possible. If the value of your game is 20 dollars but via Kickstarter magic you’re getting more, you should at least be paying your fee at the base value of the game. If it is less (IE: Get the game today for 10!) then you should bill it at the lower amount - and if you’re really strapped, the lower amount less the fees (so base it on your net income).

Until I hear a direct response from Unreal, that is the method I’d recommend.

I’m aware of that :slight_smile: my point was that if you claim your kickstarter funding was based on a $1 game value, and then sell the game elsewhere for $20, you’re going to run into trouble. My comment was not intended as a suggestion.

But who’s to say the price wasn’t originally intended to be $1? I know I probably sound ridiculous, but how is someone supposed to know what their game will be sold for once released?

I would imagine that most people when starting a project (especially if they have made enough progress to get a Kickstarter campaign going) would at least have put some thought into the rough price they’d be putting on the game (even if they didn’t have an exact figure they’d have thought about the ballpark price they’d be charging). It’s the kind of thing I would expect someone to have thought about, especially if they’re offering the game as one of the tier rewards (that suggests to me they have some thought put towards the game’s value).

I think if you released the game for a higher price later on, it would be very hard to convince anyone that you had no idea of the game’s intended price at the time you were offering the Kickstarter rewards. I certainly wouldn’t want to try it :stuck_out_tongue:

Well that’s the thing, for the game I am working on, they started the Kickstarter over a year ago, and weren’t even using UE4. Now that they have switched to UE4, the game’s potential has gone up quite a bit. For their tier $30, it was access to open beta, for $40, access to the game itself. I find it hard to believe that the game will be sold for only $10, as I’m sure it can sell for $30+.

If the $30 tier gives beta access that you can’t get otherwise, then there would be a 5% royalty on that $30 since it’s the same thing as buying the game, even if it’s in Beta.

what happens if I want to give a game for free to my friend(or for beta testing),do I need to pay something?

($0 * 0.05)*($0 > 3000) = $0, so no.

Ok thanks :slight_smile: