Epic Games announces shift in game royalties for Unreal titles

Epic Games announced today at its Unreal Fest that it is changing its revenue share structure for games — or at least, for games that are built using its Unreal Engine. According to Epic, it will soon shift its own royalty rate from 5% to 3.5%, meaning game creators will be able to keep even more of the money they make. This is only for games built with Unreal Engine, and in order to partake of this new rate, publishers have to launch their game day one on the Epic Games Store. The new incentive begins on January 1, 2025.

Steve Allison, general manager for the Epic Games Store, announced the new change, saying, “Eligible games will get the rate reduction across all stores, and that includes Steam, and all platforms where you offer your game, and that includes all consoles. This is a powerful incentive for you to activate all of the incredible Epic Game Store opportunities and benefit everywhere.”

Allison reminded users that there are other incentives for developers and publishers who choose to put their games on EGS, including its 88/12% revenue share in favor of game creators, and a 0% royalty rate for purchases made on the EGS using Epic’s own payment processor. He also mentioned Epic’s First Run program, which allows users to keep 100% of their revenue for the first six months if they launch first on Epic’s platform and remain exclusive for that time.

It’s worth noting that this more favorable royalty rate launches at the same time as the new price structure for Unity. The other game engine company announced recently that it’s junking its controversial Runtime Fee, but will instead raise the prices of Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise by 8% and 25%, respectively. These new price increases also take effect on January 1.