Unreal Pricing - What about non-profits?

General Feedback & Requests
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Is there any clarity around how the Unreal Pricing announcement will affect non-profits? I work with a team that uses Unreal sparingly for both game development and linear purposes, but are mostly just learning and ultimately gives anything they create away for free.

I think technically the organization’s revenue might approach $1m, but as a non-profit most of that goes out the door in one way or another. I saw one person say this would fit under Unreal’s “hobbyist” banner, but with most other software the team has been welcomed under an “educator” banner. Would that be the case here?

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Is your team involved:

  • in “game development”
  • or “educators, hobbyists”
  • or “companies generating less than $1 million in annual gross revenue.”

Then the new pricing does not apply to your team.

You will only need to pay for seats if you meet all of the following criteria:

You are a company that generates over $1 million in annual gross revenue
You do not create games
And you do not create applications that are licensed to third-party end users and rely on Unreal Engine code at runtime

This change is to charge mega companies/film companies who have a million dollar budget, make a profit, and can afford a small fee. The fee is subsidizing UE development so that it stays free for the rest of us.

I thank Epic for being fair to those who cannot afford fees, and even being fair to the mega corps by only charging a small fee.

Also note that there already seems to be a fee schedule for game makers, but it was small with 5% only if products “exceed $1 million in lifetime gross revenue.”

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Yes. Overall it’s very fair. But in this area it’s a little vague and could land in a few different places. My questions remain:

  • Do non-profits fall under “educators?” “Hobbyists?” Neither? It’s too vague at the moment.

  • If a non-profit does $1m+ in gross “revenue,” what then? According to Epic’s rules currently it looks like they would have to pay. But, even if it’s technically “revenue” we’re talking about organizations that aren’t lining their pockets or selling things to make money.

If a non-profit takes in $1.5m in donations and uses Unreal to produce a movie they give away for free, or use the new motion design toolset for a donor video…do they pay?

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Bumping to help you. I don’t know the answer, and Epic officials should reply to clarify your raised point.

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That’s the problem of gross revenue VS net profit. I would love they changing it to the second concept.

I think a “we earn (only) when you earn” would be a more fair and friendly policy.

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I to need clarification on this.

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Agreed. It would be helpful to have clarification on this. It would be helpful to know what qualifies as a company? There are a wide variety of non-profits and even educational institution non-teaching staff which would like to use Unreal Engine. Their usage may be a small part of what they do and it would be helpful to know if they will need seat licenses.

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