So I assume the Sales function still isn’t ready given the fact that the only Items on sae I saw so far were the bug of the most recent asset giveaway.
Will it be ready for this Black friday or cyber monday?
All those sellers that increased prices 3 to 10 times could just bring back the old prices they had on the UE Marketplace to boost sales for everyone. With so many products at insanely high prices it is surely affecting sales even to those sellers that didn’t increase their prices or increased just a bit in the 20% to 30% maybe… A fake discount on inflated prices is not going to fix anything with FAB.
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Don’t blame the player, blame the Game. FAB ignored our popular request to “paid upgrades” and obviously no subscriptions. So they left us with the old “Pay once, own Forever” 
.
The result: Insanely high prices for both individuals and studios. 
Then you don’t sell anything. In fact various sellers are claiming 95% drop in sales. Which means you are losing your main customers target thinking to make easy money by raising prices 3 to 10 times for big AAA studios. If sellers don’t understand that the main customers target are solo indie developers and micro to small software houses (2-10 people on average) and keep pursuing an increase in prices then that is what happens… a huge drop in sales. Also the drop in sales this way is affecting those sellers that either maintained the same prices or increased them just a little bit too. Simply because there is a large majority of too expensive assets now that drives away the main potential customers target, what happens is that with some assets now 3 to 10 times more expensive for the Professional license that would be the same as UE Marketplace license gross revenue limits wise then many potential customers end up skipping purchasing the most expensive assets and then they don’t care about buying the cheaper ones too anymore because they can’t afford the now very expensive ones they might have wanted to use combined in a project.
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I rather pay once and own forever than pay any subscription anyday! Do you not know math or managing finances?
Sellers jacking up prices will eventually get a rude awakening when they get no sales or be beaten by their compotition.
Its always ALWAYS better to pay once!
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F-that !! Nobody wants to work their azzes for one time payments, you included. That means Employees, Game Devs, Apps and list goes on. Devs add subscriptions, loot boxes, expirable goods, etc. So don’t give that . Even Unity offered “Pay for Upgrades” on all Assets.
I’m fine with that as long as Epic sees their sale numbers dropped and make some changes. While the “Pay once, own forever” continues, this will always be a hobbie, not a real job.
The “Pay once, own forever” has allowed many people thru the years to create businesses and make money. The “pay forever own nothing” has only increased rich investors and managers bank accounts and caused so many businesses to shut down.
Also the main target of assets sellers on online shops like the Unity and Unreal Engine ones have always been solo indie developers and micro to small software houses (2-10 people average). Not big AAA studios making billions.
Thinking to force your potential customers to pay forever is always a bad thing but it is even worse when you fail to realize your main target selling products. It always ends up with the majority of potential customers refusing to buy and in this case it happens sooner for a reason… solo developers and micro to small software houses can’t afford paying forever for assets even if they ever wanted to otherwise they would end up with no money selling games or finished products that rarely manage to make a lot of money and usually bring in just enough to keep going when taxes are paid (and in some countries especially in Europe taxes are very high)
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Solo Devs and micro houses are also selling expire loots, renewable subscriptions, free with Ads and so on… they don’t give away their products for a one time payment anymore. That’s all in the past. We’re all trying to make money here and that’s Ok. But hey, if Epic don’t want to listen… they will wake up with major drop sales cause like I said, nobody is gonna work their tail off for 1 time payments anymore.
So enjoy your perpetual products, but be ready to pay big bucks for them from now on. 
I thought that Epic had an clause against price gouging during an discount sale?
Just price and marketing. Pricing, customer segments, and product quality determine if your customer wanna pay for your services as one-off or continuous supporting you. I don’t every think i will buy a single simple 3D asset (such as , maybe a door) with subscription, but I am okay to pay for smart asset or even programming framework (with continuous upgrade/ new features) with subscriptions, music loyalty to use in different scenario. Just depends.
Subscriptions sometime also give buyers an alternative to do something just one time / one project with a lower prices, hard to say it’s good for not, but fit or don’t fit the used case and requirements . 
There no doubt about that. Just like to point out that the quality specially, is determined by resources, meaning continuous support. Expecting a superb high quality product from a 1 time payment is a derailed illusion.
It’s what the store needs. Support from both sides, not just pamper the Devs to make Games and give the all assets for free. Artists need continued support as well, but Tim Sweeney is a programmer so of course he’s gonna pick their side.
If you look at the current state with Studios: They don’t want to hire people, they don’t want to pay for Assets, they just want everything Free while they charge mostly expired goods on Kids (In app purchases)… it is greedy. They need to share the profits, so that content (assets) is more price accessible and higher quality.
You can’t really stop people who want to get things cheap, even if something is affordable, some will still look for pirated copies from risky sources or use assets without permission. But the market has a way of balancing things out: quality work tends to get real support from true fans (financially), while those who can’t keep up often fade away.
Just focus on producing quality work, and you’ll see the results pay off.
The current state of Fab is concerning, with many missing features that are negatively impacting sales. It’s uncertain whether they will be able to capitalize on the upcoming Black Friday sales.
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The way I see it… it’s their only way to get some “tip” income, because they’re into a big awakening: Games are about to become 5X more expensive to develop. It’s the result of their lack of empty with asset artist. Now everything is insanely expensive for not offering “pay for upgrades” or expirable assets. 
Yeah sure… expirable assets … and who would be buying those ? Not even AAA studios would think about wasting money on that.
Thinking that you can monetize on assets sold continously and forever is already a bad thing in the IT industry overall but not understanding that Unreal Engine Marketplace now FAB main customers target are solo indie developers and micro software houses (2-10 people on average) is even worse.
If more sellers keep increasing prices here on FAB they would only force game developers to not buy anything. The 95% drop in sales are not enough so it seems. There are sellers like you that keep asking for more ways to have customers pay forever more and more.
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It’s a reasonable request. Unity has “Pay for Upgrades”, that is the least FAB could have done… but No, they stuck with “Pay once, own forever” to pamper Devs. Why? So you can all make Games for them faster. It’s how Epic earn real money. But what’s happening now is those pampered Devs can’t affort cheap Assets anymore and if they don’t make quality Games, Epic will see their numbers go down. Ultimately, Game Customers are not going to pay 2X more for your Games. So it’s a lesson Epic (& Devs) will have to learn the hard way 
Less than 5% of indie startups manage to make more than $1 million gross revenue from games as per some public statistics.
The majority of solo indie developers and micro software houses have a very low gross revenue from games although it’s pretty easy to break the $100,000 Personal license gross revenue margin set on FAB.
In Europe taxes are 50% or higher in most countries so selling games is not an easy way to become rich unless a game manages to sell many copies. But most indie games either are a market failure in the 20,000 or less copies sold or manage to make enough money in the 50,000+ copies sold. In both cases are still enough for a living but not for being rich. And it’s not that solo indie developers and micro software houses manage to become rich after 1 or 2 games sold. It rarely happens. Few can aim to become a small to medium software house in a few years and most stop to exist or solo developers keep going on their own and never can grow in gross revenue… which means selling 10,000 or 20,000 copies of each new game and not getting any game to 50,000+ copies sold.
Then there are the lucky ones that manage to sell 100,000+ copies but most just don’t.
@DarkS474 We know the difficulties for Indie devs but we are talking about the largest 3D asset store selling to individuals, small teams and well established Studios.
So the question is: What makes you so sure that the Buyer who’s paying for the Professional License is an Indie studio and NOT a large corporation?
The answer is we don’t know and they don’t want us to know (else they would have created a License for them).
Now you may say, there’s a lot more Indie devs than large studios which is the same as comparing your average Joe with Elon or Gates. The difference here and this is important for you to understand: You can have 100 Indie studios buying 10 assets p/month WHILE only 3 large studios are buying 800 assets p/month 
. You see the difference? It doesn’t matter if you have 100 sharks … they just don’t have the buying power as a Whale. Hope you get the point.
I think paying for upgrades or updates through a subscription model is quite reasonable, especially when it comes to smart assets or software frameworks. Another approach is an ‘all-access subscription,’ similar to platforms like Netflix, where developers can download and use assets (such as 3D models, props, or scenarios) while their subscription is active. They can continue using these assets in the same projects even if the subscription is canceled.
To prevent misuse, platforms can limit the number of downloadable assets, preventing users from subscribing briefly just to download everything.
Subscriptions can also be beneficial for small indie developers, as they offer a lower entry cost for accessing quality assets, although the suitability of this model depends on the terms and specific nature of the assets.
Another option is to allow developers to purchase assets outright at a premium price, which would grant perpetual use and the flexibility to apply them across multiple projects. This approach gives developers long-term ownership, but in practice, quality work rarely involves reusing the same assets across multiple projects.
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That’s the ideal approach, where everyone benefits $ and quality of work is guaranteed. It’s the way to go for a lot of succesful companies such as Microsoft (Game pass), Apple (Arcade), Sony (Playstation Plus) and yes, Netflix as well.
Yet, I’m afraid if that selling model ever gets Epic’s approval… it will only involve Game Devs. On the other hand, FAB is the perfect platform to offer a 3rd license option: The FAB Pass (access to all assets, pay once a month). Everyone wins.
Downloaded Assets could be set to Inactive when not subscribed, thus breaking Games. But I’m aware that’s pretty extreme and not realistic (at the moment).
What could be done is limit their updated content. So they keep the Asset but if they’re not subscribed, then they don’t get the Asset improvements, fixes and extra content. I think that’s a fair ground 
- Bulk downloads would also need to be limited like you mentioned.