I just wanted to ask if I were to release a game on Steam (or in general), and it went through the whole green light process and got selected, if I released the game as free, will I still need to pay the 5% royalty?
Thanks!
If you do not profit, you do not pay. If you release the game as “free,” but make money off paid content then you still have to pay the royalties.
i think he mean if your game is free! but you have paid content in game! which ppl can buy later on! correct me if im wrong! thanks !
What do you mean by “make money off paid content”?
The process here is rather straightforward, to be honest. Essentially, if you earn no revenue from your game, then you do not pay royalty fees to Epic. However, if you release the game as “free-to-play”, but offer in-app purchases or it is supported by advertising, then you will have to pay these fees.
It is, however, worth noting that royalty fees are only paid after the first $3,000 per calender quarter, as explained below:
Generally, you are obligated to pay to Epic 5% of all gross revenue after the first $3,000 per game or application per calendar quarter, regardless of what company collects the revenue. For example, if your product earns $10 from sales on the App Store, the royalty due is $0.50 (5% of $10), even though you would receive roughly $7 from Apple after they deduct their distribution fee of roughly $3 (30% of $10).
Similarly, if you choose to secure funding for your project via Kickstarter or a similar crowd-funding platform, this is also subject to royalty fees. This is something to keep in mind.
There’s additional information on the royalty fees to be found here: Häufig gestellte Fragen - Unreal Engine