Last week, Epic Games unveiled an exciting new Unreal Editor for Fortnite, giving players the freedom to create their own unique experiences in battle royale. They’ve made everything from Chapter 1 maps to Mario Kart maps for entertainment and original game ideas. While the tool offers a variety of options for developers, it also includes regulations on what fans can and cannot do, and what they can monetize.
The toolset comes shortly after the early access release of the second iteration of its Creator Economy, in which Epic uses an “engagement metric” to determine which of the 40% of the Item Shop’s net revenue goes to whom and to whom. Essentially, the program aims to pay creators based on how content is used. “Players can show their support,” says Epic’s policy, “by simply playing their favorite creator’s island.” As you might expect, there are terms and conditions, especially around intellectual property. According to Epic Games, players will only be able to recreate the first chapter’s map, but not monetize it. And you can’t reverse engineer anything that infringes on someone else’s “intellectual property,” even if you “never intended to release it in Fortnite.”
On March 23, Epic Games published a blog post stating that no one may use “anyone’s intellectual property without the permission of others” in the Creator Program. Importantly, the post states that you are not even allowed to create such content, let alone publish or monetize it (Epic Games reiterated the first point in a follow-up blog a day later). The exception to this rule are chapter 1 cards, but you still can’t monetize them.
In an interview with Fortnite content creator SinX6, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney clarified that this is to prevent “setting a precedent that completely breaks down in the future” and that you don’t run out of other games that can create missions Summoned card.
