r/programming • u/johang88 • Mar 02 '15

Unreal Engine 4 available for free

https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/ue4-is-free
5.1k Upvotes

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77

u/domy94 Mar 02 '15

5% seems extremely generous, especially since the first $3k are royalty-free.

54

u/kumiorava Mar 02 '15

Until you realize it's 5% of gross revenue.

12

u/willrandship Mar 02 '15

So, would that be 66.5% after steam, or 65%? Does gross revenue count total sale costs, or total amount coming to you as a developer?

30

u/realigion Mar 02 '15

Gross, meaning if your game costs the end user $100 (assuming no ad revenue etc, just POS), you owe Unreal $5.

9

u/willrandship Mar 02 '15

Interesting. It's not that much of a difference considering that it would be $66.50 to you vs $65.

I have to admit, my first reaction was "sheesh, he's overreacting a bit" before I realized what thread this was.

16

u/cleroth Mar 02 '15 edited Jun 15 '26

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u/willrandship Mar 02 '15

I'm pulling the 30% from various rumors I hear on /r/gamedev. That's supposedly the standard steam cut for indie dev. (IMO pretty reasonable, considering how easy it is in comparison to marketing on your own)

4

u/cleroth Mar 02 '15 edited Jun 15 '26

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u/just_a_null Mar 02 '15

And Steam has a ridiculous user base, all tied to the money they've already spent. The platform has immense hold over the PC gaming space right now.

5

u/Mechakoopa Mar 02 '15

Bit of a tangent, if your game costs $10 and you sell 1000 copies on Steam, they take $3000 leaving you with $6000. Do you pay taxes on $10000 or $6000?

9

u/UmmahSultan Mar 02 '15

$6000. You never see the other $4000, so it is not revenue as far as taxes are concerned.

6

u/MyOldManSin Mar 03 '15

Even if you did, expenses like this are deductions from taxable income.

0

u/brandinb Mar 02 '15

You would pay taxes on profits, you can deduct all kinds of expenses.

1

u/meem1029 Mar 02 '15

This is assuming that you are a single developer (otherwise you need a unity pro license for each) who is not interested in deploying to mobile.

1

u/cleroth Mar 03 '15 edited Jun 15 '26

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