I was searching for documentation, because now, you don´t have to pay royalties to Epic from sales at any store, like Steam, unless you already make 1 million dollars; but information remains the same… no idea if using the UE logo is required, either for: Game Intro or Game Credits
In the past some people said, it wasn´t required at all, and even Epic had to give you permission to use it, some UE games don´t have it anywhere, or only in their websites (not even in main page), others have a hudge UE logo as intro, and others only inside credits, but now, no idea… years ago, you had to fill a form, informing EPIC about your game, but now i searched and didn´t found it…
Do we have to inform EPIC and add an UE Logo to our games, but only after we sell 1 million dollars? This page even say that UE can refuse the use of the Logo in your game and starts with a “Looking to implement the Unreal Engine logo”… wich doesn´t sound as “you are obligated”: Unreal Engine Branding Guidelines and Trademark Usage - Unreal Engine
Then second question, after 1 million, do you have to do the 3 months thing (quarter) or now, how to pay? what happens if a game peeks at 1 million then next month sells 800K and starts dropping? what´s the new rule of thumb for calculating it, since it was already confusing in the past?
You don’t need to put the UE4 logo anywhere if you don’t want to. As far as royalties. My understanding is after you make your million dollars, every dollar afterwards is subject to royalties. I think it’s 5% so if you made 1.8 mil you would pay $40,000 in royalties. %5 of 800,000. I don’t know the time frame for the payments or where to send the check to, as of yet I have not made a million dollar game…
Excellent, but i guess the 5%, only applies if we sell on Epic Store, what about Steam and other stores?
I haven´t either, but i wanted to be more clear about the new rules; i still wonder, if we still have to fill paperwork with Epic before releasing a game with Steam, and notify them we are using UE for an specific game, or, if we don´t need to fill anything until we reach that 1 million to do it? If we do, do you know how to do it?
It’s %5 no mater where you sell that goes to epic after the 1 mil dollar mark (gross revenue). The other charge you pay from selling on stores is separate. I’m not aware of any paperwork you have to fill out regardless of what game you make, where you sell it, or how much you make from it. This seems like something we all need to know eventually. I have not released a game yet but I’m learning about this thanks to your question. Again this is what I think from my understanding of what I read. It might be best to contact Epic directly to get some specific answers. If you do or if you see that anything I said was wrong, please reply about it.
5% from gross…? its like 10%… Remember Steam royalties are 30%, before another 30% of taxes Taxes FAQ (Steamworks Documentation)… so, if you sell a game in $10, you only earn $4.90 after both cuts, wich is less than half; meaning, if you make an initial cut of 5% from the original $10, this percentage represents a bigger percentage (10% or more); why not taking it from the real earnings, or before taxes?
Thanks, i think more people should share information regarding this subject, documentation, paperwork, new links, etc, since now there is changes in Epic Games, and people is guessing about.
Epic decided to take a cut from gross, because if it’s from “profits” there are too many accounting tricks that unscrupulous people would try to use to withhold payment. From an accounting point of view, this makes total sense! Note that, if you give the game away, you will charge zero dollars, and thus owe zero dollars. (This doesn’t hold if you “give away” the game but it requires the purchase of, say, a custom controller. No cheating the system!)
You have to make the business decision to price your game such that you can afford the Epic cut, once you make a million dollars in revenue. If you somehow think that you can’t do this, you’re free to use some other engine and adhere to whatever their rules are. Similarly, you have to choose a store or marketplace, and a price for that marketplace, that makes your business work out. Godot, for example, charges exactly zero dollars. (But if you make a profitable game, sending some amount to the developers, would be the right thing to do, to sustain the development.)
“But Godot doesn’t have close to all the cool stuff that the Unreal Engine has,” you might say. Yes, you are correct! This is how a market economy works: Producers produce products, and charge prices that they think are reasonable to pay for that production. If you produce a better product, you charge more.
Just been honest, it is logical that the amount of money from sales before taxes and payments does not belong to developers, but to the government and third parties; not all countries have treaties that reduce USA taxes of 30%, developers only receive 45% or less from those sales, companies like Valve, for example, actually do deliver official reports that Epic can verify… of course they do, in order to prove royalties and government taxes, also if you sell a $10 game, this is a dollar currency price, about 40 countries like India with different currencies, do not pay $10, maybe they pay $3, since those markets, as you know, pay less for the same game in Steam, so official reports allow Epic, to see the real amount of money from sales, 10,000 buyers doesn´t mean $100,000, maybe $35,000… So… is this 10% cut #5% is also going to be guessed from $100,000 LOL?