Revenue threshold for UDK raised

Epic raised the earnings threshold for UDK to $50,000, ten times its former amount. Developers don't pay Epic for the engine until they hit that figure.

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Epic has raised the amount of money that can be earned by a developer before paying royalties when using its Unreal Development Kit. Epic vice president Mark Reign made the announcement in the Epic forums, saying the new threshold is $50,000, ten times the previous rate. That means smaller developers won't have to pay Epic royalties on their games until they cross $50,000 in sales.

"We're really excited about folks making some amazing things with UDK and we realize that a lot of you are just getting started in the business so not having to pay royalties on your first $50,000 should help you get a financial footing toward building a quality game development business," said Rein.

Rein also clarified that UDK royalties are on wholesale amount, which is the money received by the developer after the retailer takes their cut. The Unreal Development Kit launched over a year ago, in an effort to supply professional tools for noncommercial and educational use.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    February 23, 2011 7:30 PM

    Comment on Revenue threshold for UDK raised, by Steve Watts.

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      February 23, 2011 7:34 PM

      This is interesting, but I wonder how they're going to measure those sorts of sales? Also - I like the comment integration on the new news posts, Shacknews!

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        February 23, 2011 7:35 PM

        Yeah good job, saw the comment pop up, clicked to read the story, commented.

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        February 23, 2011 8:13 PM

        Thanks. We're working on adding a DEK or summary to the initial post so you get some context for what the story is about when you see it in chatty.

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          February 23, 2011 8:15 PM

          [deleted]

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            February 24, 2011 12:49 AM

            shack actually has people who write the stuff on the front page. weird huh

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          February 23, 2011 8:16 PM

          Yea this would definitely be nice.

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          February 23, 2011 8:16 PM

          [deleted]

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          February 23, 2011 8:17 PM

          That would definitely be good.

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          February 23, 2011 8:21 PM

          great idea

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          February 24, 2011 12:48 AM

          That definitely would be great. This is cool too

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          February 24, 2011 12:52 AM

          make it collapse-able and collapsed by default

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          February 24, 2011 1:19 AM

          the way the comments are integrated in the news story looks terrible

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          February 24, 2011 6:15 AM

          A suggestion, possibly for a user setting: can all these posts from, say, the last 12 hrs (the front page comment thread) be filters to be at the top of the chatty for a user as to replicate the old top stories side bar?

          add in the summary like you talk about and that would be perfect.

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      February 23, 2011 7:34 PM

      Wow that's pretty generous of them. Going from 5 to 50k is a pretty big leap.

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      February 23, 2011 8:16 PM

      Epic is so awesome for doing this.

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      February 23, 2011 8:31 PM

      How hard is this to learn?

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      February 23, 2011 9:15 PM

      so it was $5000 before? that's not much, relatively. good for raising it!

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        February 23, 2011 9:21 PM

        It was 5000 before and after that point you had to share %25 with Epic.

        Still a great opportunity because any programing staff that is going to get you to the point UDK is at would want at least %25 of the budget anyways.

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      February 24, 2011 12:30 AM

      Way to go Epic. Definitely a good way to drum up interest in UE3 from smaller devs.

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      February 24, 2011 12:49 AM

      That's pretty damn cool of them

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      February 24, 2011 1:09 AM

      I didn't realize the old limit was so low. Definitely an option for me now.

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      February 24, 2011 6:02 AM

      It's not 'cool' of them, or generous. It's just a smart business move. it's totally cool of them! :o

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        February 24, 2011 6:11 AM

        eh, I think it can be both

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      February 24, 2011 7:01 AM

      I think once this sucker gets DX11 support I will have to take a look.

      Good on them for the change, it makes me want to use and I am sure others as well.

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