"We believe that it is excessively greedy for Apple, Google, and Steam to take a 30% commission. It is natural for developers to receive as much revenue as possible, and the Epic Games Store provides this benefit."
Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, said this during a keynote speech at the 'Unreal Fest 2025' held on the 25th at the Grand Ballroom of COEX in Seoul. 'Unreal Fest' is Epic Games' representative annual event, which started in Korea in 2010. It is a venue where developers and creators can participate to experience the latest technologies of products that make up the Unreal Engine and Epic ecosystem and share their production experiences. This year, there will be 38 lectures held over two days across various fields including games, film and TV, animation, architecture, automotive, manufacturing, and simulation.
On this day, Sweeney criticized gaming app market platforms like Google, Apple, and Steam for imposing high commissions while emphasizing the competitiveness of their own platform. He said, "When using the payment service on the Epic Games Store, developers receive 88% of the revenue and only 12% is charged as a commission," and added, "For the first $1 million (about 1.38 billion won) in revenue annually, we pay 100% of the revenue to the developers." He continued, "We believe this is the maximum that the store should take," and noted, "Epic Games Store has paid developers over $2.1 billion (2.9152 trillion won)."
Epic Games is the gaming company that prompted a ruling declaring that mandatory in-app payments violate antitrust laws in the United States. In the past, when Epic Games enabled in-game payments to avoid in-app payment fees, Google and Apple removed 'Fortnite' from their app markets. As a result, Epic Games filed an antitrust lawsuit, and in October last year, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of Epic Games. At the end of April, the same court prohibited Apple from charging a separate 27% commission for external links that lead to third-party payments.
Sweeney said, "Thanks to the results we have achieved by fighting against Apple and Google in the U.S. and more regions in the future, we can now directly advertise within games or link to web shops," adding, "We can allow customers to make purchases directly to avoid store commissions."
Sweeney also mentioned a future gaming system called the ecosystem, where all games will be connected. He said, "Until now, games have competed with each other, but future games will be connected as an ecosystem." He added, "We are preparing Verse, the language of Unreal Engine, similar to Java or C+, C++, and through this, we dream of an interoperable economy where players can meet and chat no matter what game they are playing and purchase items from one game in another," noting that the detailed content will be included in Unreal Engine 6.
Following the keynote speech, a media briefing took place. He emphasized the advancements in the gaming industry brought about by AI technologies. He said, "In the next three years, artificial intelligence (AI) technology will bring significant changes to game development," and noted, "Generating code through AI assistance is already possible." He added, "While larger corporations may find it difficult to handle large projects, smaller corporations will benefit significantly and it will be a great aid to their work."
However, Sweeney made it clear that Epic Games does not plan to enter the competition for developing its own AI models. He said, "Large AI companies like OpenAI and Google invest billions of dollars in developing models and operating large-scale data centers," adding, "We will focus on utilizing the cutting-edge technologies they provide while adding our own innovative capabilities."
He also mentioned the importance of the Korean market. Sweeney said, "Korea is achieving global success in game development and in TV and film, and cultural exports are growing," and noted, "Additionally, Korea has the highest level of immersion in games worldwide, with a serious attitude toward games and a respectful atmosphere for the industry, making Korea the center of gaming."