Company takes 25 per cent revenue slice after $5,000 grace period
The new mobile-customised Unreal Engine will be free for developers to download and play with, Epic Games has confirmed.
A company spokesperson has confirmed to Develop that the iOS tool has a similar pricing model to its Unreal Development Kit (UDK), where a $99 licence is needed for commercial projects. Also, Epic Games will take 25 per cent of a game’s revenues once the title starts taking in over $5,000.
Apple already takes a 30 per cent cut of iPhone and iPad games published on its App Store.
Epic’s powerful engine was recently flaunted with Infinity Blade; the firm’s first fully-fledged iPhone and iPad game that became a blockbuster success overnight.
Numerous news reports suggest the game has become the fastest-grossing App Store title of all time, taking in at least $1,625,000 in four days.
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Epic Games hasn’t released an Android version of its engine, though the firm’s vice-president Mark Rein has not ruled out the move.
Ouch, so that leaves you with a 45% cut of an already low margin platform, looks like your gonna have to charge more than most to make-up the difference, hmmmm.
(Sorry, forgot to login above...)
Ouch, so that leaves you with a 45% cut of an already low margin platform, looks like your gonna have to charge more than most to make-up the difference, hmmmm.
It's only based on what the developer receives AFTER apple take their 30% cut.
That would leave you with 52.5% of total sales once it goes above $6500.
So you only pay if it's successful. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
I really can't see AAA titles massively arriving on mobile platforms. It is going to take a fortune to produce, and then you only get 1 or 2$ per sales. No way, this can be viable for more than few dev. Yes, Infinity Blade was succesfull, but remember that it was MASSIVELY hyped on the Iphone. How many games can be as hyped as this one?
It might happen in the future, but in short term, I'm still betting on casual games to be succesfull on mobiles.
JC
@Danny K Parker Yes and no. It's a good problem to have after the fact but you use any other iOS engine and (while it's not probably capable of the visual de'force of UDK) your take is 70% regardless.
It's still a good option to have if you are aiming at AAA mobile and have Chair's / Epic's skills with 3d and art.
But you have to take the above into consideration.
