I have 6 tiers on my games Patreon page (1, 5,10, 20, 50,100) and I’m not sure how licensing/royalties applies to each one.
I’m releasing a free demo and a paid demo with extra content for the $5 tier and above.
If the full demo is available to the $5 tier and above, and the higher tiers do not currently give the player anything extra, does that mean that anything they pay above $5 is considered a donation and royalty free?
So for example: Someone pays £50, I would owe Epic 5% of $5 and the other $45 are a royalty free donation?
Also, does adding their name to the credits count as an in game benefit? What about allowing them to name a collectable item?
When I designed my tier structure I didn’t realise how confusing this might get! Is it possible to email Epic and go through everything to be sure I’m doing this correctly? I might have to rethink my tiers to make this a bit easier to manage. Thank you!
Thank you for getting back so quickly.
So it only applies to tiers that actually grant access to the game/content, does that mean the name in the credits and naming a collectible are considered ancillary benefits?
Under the circumstances you describe (everyone who donates $5 gets the same access to the Product), you would only owe royalties on the first $5 of each transaction. Applicable EULA text below:
c. Gross revenue from any Kickstarter or other crowdfunding campaign which is directly associated with Product access or in-Product benefit (e.g., in a multi-tiered campaign, if an amount is established in an early tier solely for Product access, your royalty obligation will apply to that amount for each backer with the same access, but not on additional amounts in higher tiers based on ancillary benefits);
Great, thanks for clearing that up for me. I have one more question. My top tier grants access to all future development builds without pledging again, until the game is complete. Does this also count as ancillary, as the same builds will be available to the lower tiers? Or is it the other way around? Thank you!