Epic Games is trying to make a better economy for Fortnite creators with what it calls “Creator Economy 2.0,” which it announced Wednesday during its State of Unreal keynote.
Previously, Epic creators participated in the company’s “Support-A-Creator” program. In the program, makers were given individual codes and if someone bought something in the Fortnite shop with that code, that maker would get 5 percent of your purchase. But the big downside to that model is that makers would have to promote their code and just hope that people will remember to use it when making purchases.
Fortnite generates “billions” of dollars in revenue each year from purchases of outfits and items from the game’s in-game store, Saxs Persson, Epic’s EVP of the Fortnite ecosystem, said on stage at the event. As part of Creator Economy 2.0, Epic plans to use 40 percent of Fortnite’s net income to “eligible creators who publish games in Fortnite,a description that includes Epic itself.
“Payments from the pool are based on the performance of the island. We take into account data such as the popularity of the island, engagement, retention and the attraction of new players,” said Persson. “There is no need to design crafty monetization loops or extractive gate items. You create an island that players love; that’s all you need to be part of the new economy.” Epic has more details on payouts in his blog post about the new plan.
Epic also launched a special one Fortnite maker portal https://create.fortnite.com/, where creators can sign up for the program. Epic will retroactively pay creators based on engagement starting March 1. The new changes come along with the Unreal Editor Fortnitea PC app that allows creators to build many of Unreal Engine’s new tools Fortnite experiences.
