25 percent of revenue is taken by Epic after the first $5000 is made from selling a game, and an upfront fee of $99 for using the studio’s tools.
As soon as a studio clears $5000 in revenue then Epic’s cut percentage kicks in. The UDK maker gives an example of an indie dev releasing a title and earning €15,000 - they would owe 25 percent of €10,000 in the first calendar quarter.
Big time publishers and developers of course don’t sue this system, instead they negotiate licensing fees with Epic’s top brass at undisclosed amounts. It’s likely they vary quite a bit depending on the amount of ‘work’ the studio can bring to Epic.
Is a 25 percent cut a fair deal for using the freely distributed Unreal Development Kit for commercial use? Making internal software will cost you $2500 per developer using the tools - making it almost better to publically release internal suites…
Source: Eurogamer
