My Super disappointing Experiences with the Marketplace support team

Community Marketplace
1

Hi Guy,
I appreciate if someone from epic answer my post.
This is the second time I’m adding a product to marketplace and I’m considering moving to other marketplaces for these reasons:

A few days ago, I sent my latest project to marketplace for sale. I worked for months on this and it’s super important for me. I modeled and textured every single one of the assets in the scene just for this project.
Here is a screenshot that demonstrate how much time I have spent on it:

Singlecams.0001
Singlecams.00011080×1080 172 KB

My Problem with Epic Market place is that it’s really annoying for me as an artist for multiple reasons!

  1. The support team did not conduct a full review of my product at the first time. At their first review, they declined the project and ask for removing some of the posters on the walls due to copyright issues and replacing them. Also, they request me to disable some of the plugins and add a text to the project description to inform buyers that it supports lumen and nanite and resend the project again.
  2. I did so and after uploading the project again, (15 Gigabyte) they declined it again for new reasons which they could have told me before in their first review, and also there were things I have passed in my first submittance but failed in the second one while I could have been informed about them in the first review!

3.I think this show that the marketplace team don’t care about artists time, and this make an artist send a project over and over and over.

Why does the marketplace support team do not care about the artist’s time and instead of doing one through and accurate review prefer to do multiple partial reviews that can take a decade?

4.I think it’s reasonable to expect the marketplace support team to care about us too. It’s not easy to zip and upload a 15 Gb project every day, wait for the support team to request some minor changes, resend the project while knowing it will be declined again and you have to do more minor change the next day!

Obviously, The artist can be informed about all the issues with the project and all the changes that are required to be done in the first review!

5.Beside this, some of the issues that the marketplace support team mentioned to me are not right!
For example, they mentioned one of the folders is empty and need to be deleted while it’s not empty in my computer and also in the zipfiles! It’s a Niagara system.

6.They told me some of the levels are empty and need to be deleted while they are level instances and contain large buildings! Since they are level instances, there is no light in them, and they look dark in the lit mode! But the marketplace team did not bother trying the unlit mode or checking the outliner to understand that the levels are not empty!

I think they are not checking the files I send them with accuracy at all.

8.In their first review, they told me that they have sent me a screenshot of one of the issues with shadows, but no screen shot was sent to me before conducting the second review.

After the second review they sent me a screenshot and again mention that some of my assets create wrong shadows, while I’m sure it’s not a problem from the asset since the unzipped assets looks fine on my side on both UE 5.3.1 and 5.4.1 versions.
I believe the problem is a bug that can be solved by selecting and deselecting the asset or maybe due to shaders being compiled! I even offered them to share my screen at real time with them for this.

8.Overall, I think they are not spending enough time and energy on their job!
And also, when you send them an email, you have to pray that they will answer your email in less than a day in case they answer it.

9.Another thing that seems unreasonable to me is that I created this project only to work with lumen and nanite, but the marketplace has a rule that says objects should not have overlapping UVs.
Why would a buyer who is going to use my project with lumen and nanite, Care about having nonoverlapping UVs?

  1. While all the other marketplaces give the content creator the option to sell their product with 3 or more types of licenses and prices (For freelancers, Indie studios and big studios) Unreal’s marketplace do not have such an option in 2024!

Is there anyone in Epic team that care about these issues with the marketplace?

2

I understand the marketplace support leaves a lot to be desired. I returned a product recently because it was not as described ( in any form ), and support made me feel like they were doing me a favour!

However, speaking as someone who uses quite a lot of products, I would assume they have UVs, even if they are Nanite. Not everybody has joined the joyous Nanite boat ride yet… :slight_smile:

1 Like
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Hi, the way I would do it, based on your mentioned points:

  1. if it’s an “add to project” type of asset, then the end-user may or may not have a plugin enabled, have it mentioned in the description
  2. depends on what the issue was, naming convention for structure also plays a roll
  3. it doesn’t take a decade
  4. not sure what’s all in the pack, but a similar environment like the one from the screenshot is usually around 3GB, not 15
  5. right click on the content folder and fix redirects, also test the asset for every version that’s listed (unreal new version can see the files from the old ones, but old versions can’t see files from newer versions for example)
  6. make the persistent level load streaming levels on begin play and make them visible, so that the demo doesn’t require any special effort to see the map
  7. if an asset is using texture trim sheet and needs overlapping UV’s, have another UV channel that’s used for shadows when rebuilding lighting
  8. I suppose that depends on how many e-mails there are to answer, holidays, weekend, etc.
  9. see 7
  10. that is a different topic and not related to why the asset is stuck in review

All in all, make sure to fix redirects, have a demo map ready on 1-click, double check naming conventions and file structure, mention in the description with anything unusual (special plugins etc.)

Put yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer who doesn’t have any plugins and isn’t aware of unlit mode or anything, create a new project, add your pack into it, try to open the map and press play. If it works right away, it’s good to go. If it doesn’t, make it so that it does.

Good luck!

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@sb1985
Hi,
1.Obviously Such a vast Environment is not an add to the project.

2.All the 300 objects have proper naming conventions. They mentioned the assets does not have proper naming conventions without mentioning the assets name just in the second review!
If even such an issue exists, they could mention it in the first review. In the first review I passed this.

  1. Really, Thanks for mentioning it!
    4… A similar environment size cannot be estimated based on one picture! The size depends on many things including the textures sizes and numbers,Textures resolutions,Number of meshes, and more. And also 15 GB I mentioned is for two versions of the same project, 5.3.1 and 5.4.1 !

5.I did that and I also send two version that both works fine on my PC.

  1. The demo does not require any effort to be visible now too

  2. Sure, Thanks for this one

  3. Of Course it depends on that, but also it shows how much responsibility the marketplace team feel toward the content creators…

  4. Saw it

  5. Yes, I know, but it’s related and I like to mention it in here .
    Finally,
    For sure I have placed myself in the buyer’s shoes, that’s why I have spent months on this project.
    By the way this is not about a product stucked in the review process, it’s about the review process issues.

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They don’t feel any responsibility toward artists in my opinion.
Imagine my project has 300 meshes and 700 textures. All the meshes have ST_ in their names and all the the textures has T_.
In the first review I passed the naming but in the second one they mentioned that naming convention failed. I had not changed anything that could cause this!

Beside that I have spent months on such a big project, and they don’t spend seconds on mentioning the problem in detail!

They do not even bother themselves with mentioning which assets naming is the problem!

They told me that one of the assets have shadow problems while I’m sure the asset is fine, and the problem is from their side since I tried the files on my laptop too and they work well. I unzipped it multiple time on my PC and it worked well.

It’s super disappointing that they don’t mention all the required changes in one review and prefer to ask for a change, a new review, another change, another review and …
And also, when you email them and ask your question they don’t answer!

It’s disrespectful in my opinion. I love Unreal Engine 5 and Epic, but I think while epic’s programming team is so good and powerful, the marketplace team is super weak and bad, and AI should immediately replace it in case they can’t improve it or do their job in a way that does not annoy artists.

By annoying artists, I mean if they do a thorough and careful review, they can find out everything that need to change and inform the artist about them.
Then the artist can do the changes and send the project without worrying about the issues that marketplace team ignored in their first review but won’t ignore in their next reviews.
It will save both the artist and marketplace team a lot of time and energy.

Beside that I think they have to consider that are not doing us any favors, they are doing the job they are getting paid for!

So, in my opinion they have feel more responsibility toward artists and artists times.

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I would like to a few screenshots on my project to show you how much work was done for this project and how disappointing it is to experience such a thing!

Singlecams.0000
Singlecams.00001920×1080 345 KB

Singlecams.0002
Singlecams.00021920×1080 316 KB

Singlecams.0003
Singlecams.00031920×1080 313 KB

Singlecams.0009
Singlecams.00091920×1080 283 KB

Singlecams.0004
Singlecams.00041920×1080 306 KB

Singlecams.0013
Singlecams.00131920×1080 258 KB

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Just imagine I have modeled all the assets in the scene, and none was premade!

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I’m under the impression they have a group of people who are using automated scripts to check the assets, and have no actual understanding of what they’re doing.

The pack I was talking about earlier, was plugged as ‘scifi material’. When I got it, it was in fact INSANELY high poly nanite meshes. The material was actually just a very weak albedo.

We’re talking 5mil polys for a floor tile…

I was told, it conformed to marketplace guidelines - er HOW!?

I think, unfortunately, you have to guess what kind of system and knowledge they have, and deliberate arrange your assets to take advantage of this :rofl:

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OMG, It’s really disappointing.
By the way this is my second product and for my first product I experienced the same issues with them around a year ago.

Another weird thing that happened to me,was that a couple of months ago, they informed me that my first product (East waterfall) does not work in UE 5.4.

I downloaded it again and checked it and it worked superfine. Anyway, I saved the 5.4 version and add it to the pack!

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They don’t reply to emails or when they reply is automated!

They don’t do a thorough review for the products and instead do multiple partial reviews which can take a decade to finish and become a never-ending loop.

They don’t answer artists on the marketplace forums!
They decline you without mentioning the problem in detail!

They tell you that your product does not work with the new version of the UE while it works super fine on your side.

They tell you that your product has shadow problems while this only happens on their computer!
(I guess they don’t wait for shaders to be compiled or open the 5.3.1 version of my project in 5.4 to avoid downloading the 5.4 version, I’m not sure about the reason behind this but I’m sure it’s a problem from their side)

Do they really get paid for this!?
Am I going to give marketplace 12 percent of my sales t for this?

Maybe that’s why the Epic Marketplace is so much weaker and smaller than other marketplaces and is filled with low quality assets while if you check other engines marketplaces you will notice
they are filled with AAA quality assets, Higher prices and Higher sales, I can mention their names if needed.

It’s so disappointing that such a big company, such a powerful engine, has such a problematic marketplace!

Does anyone in Epic care about this at all? It does not seem so!

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11

Around 24 hours ago, I uploaded and sent my project again for the fourth or fifth time to the marketplace.
Also, for the second time during this process I confirmed that I own all the assets based on their request! It seems they just ask for confirmation and never check the confirmation I send!

Still, I have not received any signs that show they have seen my confirmations or are checking the new file!

I have not received any emails about it yet. How long should I wait? It’s been around a week since my first upload, and it was really one of the worst experiences of my life! Instead of a week it could be easily 1-2 days!

is this simple process going to continue for a month or a year!?

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To me it seems like we love Epic but it does not love us back

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48 hours past and nothing happened!
I’m starting to get worried about the marketplace team, they have no vital signs, could someone please check them to see they are still alive?
@TimSweeneysMutt
@timsweenysherpes
@Tim_Sweeney

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@PresumptivePanda
Hello my friend
Can you help me with this?
The product is in pending for two days.
Your help would be appreciated.

15

Why are you so panicked, my friend? Don’t give up! Everyone faces similar challenges at some point. If your product is still pending approval, be patient. Send a reminder to the Epic team daily to request approval. The last time I submitted my product, I thought everything was perfect and expected it to be approved. However, they rejected it, claiming the size of my asset was not correct. I knew it wasn’t a major issue and could have been adjusted by them, saving both their time and mine, especially since my product was 11GB and difficult to upload repeatedly. But I made all the changes as they requested. Now, my product has finally been published successfully

1 Like