Do you pay any royalties for F2P mmo games??

[anonymous_user_a47318cc1 (anonymous_user_a47318cc)]

I know this may be a stupid question but i heard in order to make a f2p mmo type of game you have to pay a certain amount of money to do so (besides paying for servers) my knowledge on this is pretty vague, simply if i make a f2p mmo with unreal engine, is there any problem with that? do i pay any royalties over time? what exactly are the conditions? and are there any?

(sorry if posted in wrong thread)

[anonymous_user_3a0e3611]

1: No royalties for F2P with Unreal; the only way for a royalty fee is if you add in-game purchases or make the game cost money; then if it gets successful, Unreal gets at least 5% of the royalties-- and the number gets higher as the game gets more popular.

2: Yes, you do have to pay for servers.

[anonymous_user_94f949761]

From the FAQ:

If I release a commercial product, what royalties are due to Epic, and when?

Generally, you are obligated to pay to Epic 5% of all gross revenue after the first $3,000 per game or application per calendar quarter, regardless of what company collects the revenue. For example, if your product earns $10 from sales on the App Store, the royalty due is $0.50 (5% of $10), even though you would receive roughly $7 from Apple after they deduct their distribution fee of roughly $3 (30% of $10).

What about downloadable content, in-app purchases, microtransactions, virtual currency redemption, and subscription fees, as well as in-app advertising and affiliate program revenue?

Revenue from these sources is included in the gross revenue calculation above.

The EULA is also a bit more specific about it (and so rules over the FAQ), particularly under the 4. Royalty section.

From what I understand, if your game is completely free to play, free from ads, and players cannot buy any form of in-game items, subscriptions, or benefits, then you don’t have to pay royalties. However, as soon as you start earning money from your game, you’ll have to keep track of the gross revenue and pay Epic the due royalties for every quarter that you make more than $3000 from it.