Unreal Engine maker Epic Games is increasing the cost of using its tech.

That's according to a presentation at the Unreal Fest 2023 convention – captured by ImmatureGamerX on Twitter and spotted by Game World Observer – in which the company's CEO Tim Sweeney revealed that as of 2024, those using the engine outside of games would be paying more for the service.

To be precise, Unreal Engine is moving to a seat-based licensing model. Sweeney compared 3this change to similar tech in the digital creative space, such as Adobe's Photoshop and Maya from Autodesk. The exact terms of this change are yet to be revealed, though the CEO said that it would not be "unusually expensive or inexpensive".

This news also comes in the wake of Epic laying off around 800 members of staff. This was due to financial issues the company was facing.

"Everyone in the company is working to figure out how we are going to rebalance our priorities and retask the teams in order to serve all your needs," Sweeney said.

"Going through these pains has caused us to look at every part of our business and ask very hard questions of ourselves."

Tim Sweeney addresses Epic Games Layoffs... #UnrealFest pic.twitter.com/49t4Tf20SA

— Immature (@ImmatureGamerX) October 3, 2023