A few of them are “Single Seat Licenses” on Unity; But from my knowledge, none of the Unity Assets on Unreal Marketplace are actually any of these single-seat license assets; So there’s not really an excuse.
Easy problem to fix…make assets exclusive only to Marketplace.
I’m not talking about the single seat assets, but everything else. The standard license on the Unity asset store is single site, compared to no such limitation on the UE4 marketplace.
Unity:
UE4:
If this is reason enough to warrant a significantly higher price is another matter.
I don’t think Asset makers would take kindly to shutting out 1/2 of their audience; It might work for console developers but this isn’t games we’re talking about; Where publishers / Console manufacturers can bribe developers to make it platformer exclusive, It’s Art / Programming assets, where most people are freelance, doing this to earn more money (Or some of us just doing it for the love of it!)
I’ve shared my concerns with Assets sold to the masses in Marketplaces and presented potential solutions to these issues in various concepts and forum posts over the years:
[TABLE]
- Mystique Entity System
- HierArch Emporium
- [CONCEPT] Crowdsourced 3D Game Art & Animation]([CONCEPT] Crowdsourced 3D Game Art & Animation - Character & Animation - Epic Developer Community Forums)
- The UMECHS Compendium of Interchangeable Modular Entity Asset Parts
- I Buy Modular Parts Website
- TUTORIAL C++ - Runtime Async Load Modular Character (Intermediate)
- Full Models -vs- Modeled Parts
- A New Model Pack System: Modular Entity Construction Sets (MECs)
**
In a nutshell: **Modularity, Interchangeability, Extensibility, Mass Customization, and Price Point geared for the masses.
Modular Assets offer flexibility in authoring, packaging and price point. Content creators can author smaller parts, charge less…package multiple parts in a bundle, charge more. Mix and match parts to create different content bundle products. Offer deals and discounts within the bundle (buy 2 get 1 free). Collaborate with other Content Creators to create a Content Set, split the profit.
I personally believe the Modular Content Creation methodology will become the norm and we’re going to see more Procedural Content Generation techniques injected into games. Assets sold in the Marketplace should be prepared for this in my opinion.
Don’t ask EPIC to control the pricing, the asset makers decide how much they charge for their work. If another store has the exact same assets but cheaper then get it from there.
The fact Epic take a cut and if people are buying it elsewhere means Epic don’t get their money from the sale - So it’s definately something Epic should pay attention too; Especailly when it’s their Marketplace and system that will end up losing out.
They are also loosing money if the assets are under-priced. Not just them, everybody is. So if anything, they should be careful the prices don’t fall too low.
But little money is better then none at all 
- Many £1’s are far better then more £0’s
True 
But the long term problem may be that some of the talented artists may find it not worth the trouble any more and just go back to Turbosquid and other high end non-game markets. I personally know 3 industry veterans who did just that because the prices on Unity Store dropped too low.
Yeah, I completely agree! All I’m suggesting is for people who also post the same model / assets on other stores like Unity Asset Store that they should be forced to price-match / undercut the other stores the same asset is on sale on, because at the moment their way overcharging for the same asset which will cause long-term damage to the integrety of the Marketplace, especially when people moving over from Unity see the same asset but on the Unreal Marketplace and see it’s $40 more.
If it were the same price, yet even simpler, subconsciously they won’t think Unity is better value (Even though we all know that’s not the case, Unreal is better bang for the buck!). It’s all about dealing with things on a subconscious level; If it’s $1 cheaper on Unreal Marketplace or the same price: “Wow, I can enjoy the same assets on here and I hear it’s more powerful! This is my new home!”
That’s my two cents anyhow!
Epic Games has become so transparent over EVERYTHING to do with the Unreal Engine with UE4; So I’d be really interested to hear from Epic what they think. Even if they don’t agree with me, it would be cool what the “Voice of God” so to speak thinks on the situation!
Yes, I agree 
It seems weird that the same asset is priced more on one of the platforms.
It’s not so much about price but what can be sold in volume.
The marketplace is new so overpricing is to be expected until competitive products hit the marketplace that will force lower prices or increases quality through value adding.
Loosing money I don’t think is that much of a concern considering the marketplace is only available to the subscription base which is not that great of a business plan if it’s just about profit margins.
Agreed, that’s why they filter the assets submitted… Anyway, I’m curious to see what the Marketplace will become in a few months. Let’s hope for the best
No, that’s not a very good way of looking at it. Typically, there are two categories of people doing things in life. There are students/hobbyists and professionals. Both spend money on their craft. If you’re using the assets in a retail game, that makes you a professional. You spend money to earn money. Students and hobbyists also use money. It’s very hard to find a quality education for free, don’t you think? Let’s not talk about university in America, but there’s that. Online options? Digital tutors monthly for 30+ dollars a month. Want something more personal, where a trainer works with you personally like in a classroom setting? CGSociety workshop is about 600 dollars for a couple months of training on a specific topic. You could buy an asset on the Unreal market place for, say, 60 dollars and dissect it, figuring out how to create it yourself. Point is, it takes money to learn in a good environment. Hobbies cost money, too. Do you like arts and crafts? That can cost you 50 dollars or more at 's for a single project, depending on what you’re doing, of course. Play a recreational sport? Membership plus equipment can add up to hundreds of dollars in a year.
With the rise of Blender, Unity, now Unreal, and other pieces of software, people getting into video game development expect everything to be free, except the cost of buying a computer. That’s ridiculous. Yes, if you want to just have fun or learn, you can do video game development virtually for free. Items like assets on the Unreal marketplace are premiums to your hobby. You’re not entitled to them. They are not granted to you. Let’s go back to the arts and crafts example. You can find free stuff lying around to use to do some arts and crafts stuff. Used clothes that you don’t need anymore, newspapers/magazines, and so on. However, if you want some good quality, new, fashionable stuff for your hobby, you’re going to have to pay a premium, because that’s what it is - a premium. Video games aren’t, and shouldn’t be, an exception to this culture.
I think the assets on the marketplace are VERY cheap, considering how much work it would take to make it yourself.
Well, but when someone says they cost as much as an entire game so something is wrong with the pricing, that is also a valid point.
Consider this … a retail game costs, say, $60. A good character artist can take upwards of a month to produce a character. A single character. That costs the company a LOT more than $60, trust me.
Asking that assets being used to develop your game cost less than the game itself will cost at retail is a misguided argument IMO.
After all, this is a Marketplace - if you think it’s overprized, don’t buy. If others think you’re right as well, the seller will have to lower prices to earn money. And I don’t understand what the price of a game has to do with this. The question should rather be if you and/or your team have the ability to produce the content yourself and what it will cost you to do so. Then compare and decide.
Frankly, to me the problem in the games industry seems to be a race to the (price) bottom - as somebody else said, in the days of Unity, Unreal & Co everyone’s expecting to get everything for free. And I fear a little that this might destroy invention and choice of offers. Imagine I was thinking about writing some plugin for UE4, let’s say for creating road networks. That might take some 400 hours (ballpark), and I will have to spend additional time for updating the plugin to newer versions of UE4 and supporting customers. How many licenses could I potentially sell? Maybe 1000? Calculating with a wage cost of $100/h (since it’s easy to calculate) and taking into account Epic’s 30% share I would have to sell the plugin for about $60 to get back my invest and still be losing money due to maintenance and support. Based on some remarks here that would be too much, so it wouldn’t be worth it for me and I’d spend my time somewhere else.
Just because Epic, Unity, Crytek & Co are currently giving away their software, which took many person-years to implement, essentially for free doesn’t mean this is a sustainable business model for everyone. And I am frankly wondering if it is for them…
Sorry for this rant, wasn’t directed at anyone specific, it’s just that this “that is way too expensive” mentality is very common-place these days and it’s bugging me.
Well said.
I don’t see any reason why some game assets should not cost a lot more than the game itself. There are definitely assets that can easily go over one thousand dollars according to their complexity/quality.