I just heard that the owner of Unreal Engine (Epic Games?) charges 5% royalties if you use it in your game. Is this true? What other "hidden costs" to use assets, program, liveries and copyright are part of the reason games are getting more expensive? Are there substantial "baked in" costs that don't even go to the company making the game, but must be paid to other companies?
AFAIK, the UE royalties only apply after the first $1M in revenue. I imagine the licenses would have a cost as well, both going to the railroads and to the lawyers drawing up the agreements. Thomas probably didn't come cheap either.
I wonder how much acquiring DEM and LiDAR data plus mapping costs for professional use? Probably not cheap. Though back in the day, before we had DEMEX or similar (plus hi res DEM to work with) when I was making routes for MSTS I had to physically buy the Ordnance Survey maps from the shop. I then had to manually extract and convert grid references to the Kuju format for the route itself and key features/contours to manually sculpt the terrain. No wonder I can hardly bear to go near any train sim route editor, these days!
As has been said, the 5% cut is only for profits above 1M USD per quarter or about 11k per day. So not a concern for most people but it absolutely does apply to companies like Dovetail. As for DEM and orthophoto, open data from goverments are usually free for commercial use. Obviously there are private companies that sell this stuff as well and it's a matter of what's better in a particular scenario. Stock assets do cost something but remember that what doesn't get bought has to be made and if you compare the cost of an asset pack to billed hours of an employee, the assets are usually dirt cheap. So that's a good cost-saving measure. As for licenses, I don't know but I remember Matt saying that it's very unique every time. Some companies allow it for free while other want to get paid. One thing that does stand out though is that brands want to have themselves presented in a certain way, which is why TSW trains are usually really clean.
One cost that isn’t hidden is the 30% the platforms take for selling in their stores. £££££ €€€€€ $$$$$ ¥¥¥¥¥
Always thought that’s just crazy. These stores are getting almost a third for not doing a lot. I understand sony and microsoft had initial investment cost to come up with the software etc, but not sure what steam’s cost was. I wonder how much third party developers for tsw keep after the 30% to storefront and probably another high royalty to dovetail. Prob not a lot.
Well they have to be doing enough that Dovetail considers it worth it to not offer the game from their own website. If it were cheaper and easier to do that, they would since they'd pocket more money. That tells me that it's a royal pain in the arse and hassle to NOT use distributors instead.
In some ways I feel sorry for the 3P’s as I’m sure in addition to the platform royalties, DTG are taking a huge chunk of the revenue as well. While I was always a bit wary of buying direct from 3P’s in TSC, there is no doubt that being able to sell direct and cut out the middle man has the potential to offer a better deal to customers.
Why do you assume it's different for TSW given it's the same company and most of the same third parties involved?
Because TSC allows 3P’s to sell completely independently of Dovetail, though I suspect that’s something they regret not enforcing back in the day…
