Developers using CryEngine will soon need to pay royalty fees

Crytek today has announced another change to its business model. In an effort to monetise the CryEngine once again, Crytek will begin requiring developers using the engine to sign up to a five percent royalty fee for game sales using the engine.

This new royalty-based model comes into effect with CryEngine 5.5, so developers using the latest update will need to give a five percent share of revenue generated via game sales to Crytek. However, this rule only comes into effect after a game has already made $5000.

This is the third change to CryEngine monetisation in the last five years. Back when Crytek first opened the door for third-party studios to use the engine, it was based on a subscription model. Back in 2016, Crytek changed things around, allowing developers to download CryEngine for free and pay any amount they deemed fitting to help support future updates.

The latest shift to a royalty-based model indicates that perhaps Crytek wasn't making as much money off of its engine as it had anticipated. Developers already working on projects with CryEngine versions between 5.0 and 5.4 can apply for ‘royalty exemptions', but they will not be allowed to use the newest CryEngine 5.5 update.

KitGuru Says: Crytek has had some rough spots financially over the last couple of years. With that in mind, this move makes sense, and could help fund future games from Crytek. Whether or not this business change will be well received though, remains to be seen.

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