When creating a game, there are many financial and logistical considerations to take on board before beginning a project. One of the most important is which engine will you use to create your game. While most AAA studios have the luxury of using their own engine, most AA and indie game studios will utilize popular existing game engines such as Unity Cryengine or Unreal. However, while the use of these engines tends to be free, to publish games built in these engines, developers will have to pay a fee.

This fee is called a licence cost and tends to be a payment of royalties which will vary depending on the success of your game. In this article, we take a look at the license cost for the Unreal 4 Engine. Here is everything you need to know below:

How Much Does This Cost for Creators?

The good news for creator’s is that UE4 is completely free and does not charge a licensing fee for any asset made in the engine for this purpose. This means that you can create creative assets, content for clients if you are a freelance designer for example or you can use this for internal business use. However, this changes slightly when the assets have been published as part of a product that you intend to market and sell.

What Does This Cost for Publishers?

If you choose to create your work or any assets within the Unreal Engine that intend to be used for commercial projects, there can be a fee for doing this. In principle, most projects of this nature will still be free. However, if your project is successful and manages to generate over $1,000,000 of gross income. Then this means that Unreal will claim 5% of any revenue in royalties that are made over this threshold.

It is also worth noting that Unreal are negotiable and will work with clients to create custom licenses that work for both parties, the means of doing this can be found here.