Epic Games to launch its Fab marketplace in October 2024
Epic Games is to launch Fab, its new “open marketplace” for stock CG content, next month.
The site, which will ultimately replace the Unreal Engine Marketplace, Megascans and the ArtStation and Sketchfab marketplaces, will launch in “mid-October 2024”.
Existing Unreal Engine Marketplace sellers can now migrate their assets to Fab ahead of the launch via the new Fab Publishing Portal.
Migration of Sketchfab content will begin next month, and ArtStation Marketplace in 2025. Below, we’ve compiled our FAQs about Fab and the asset migration process.
What is Epic Games’ Fab?
Announced at GDC 2023, and originally due to launch last year, Fab will unify Epic Games’ four current online marketplaces into a single site.
The firm launched its own Unreal Engine Marketplace in 2014 as a central repository of readymade content for use in its Unreal Engine game engine.
Since then, it has bought three firms that have their own online marketplaces: Quixel and its Megascans library of real-world scan data, and artist portfolio sites ArtStation and Sketchfab.
Fab.com will unify all four, making a total of over 2.5 million assets available from a single site.
A preview of the Fab 3D asset viewer from the original GDC 2023 announcement.
How is Fab different from the Unreal Engine Marketplace?
Epic Games describes Fab as an “open marketplace” that will feature assets for “all leading content creation tools” – even those that compete directly with its own products, like Unity.
It will include a range of content for game development, VFX, motion graphics and virtual production, including 3D models, materials, environments, VFX, sound, animations and plugins.
It will feature a “next-generation” 3D viewer, with users able to inspect 3D assets in wireframe or shaded views, with search tags and stats like triangle counts generated automatically.
As well as the web portal, it will be integrated into Unreal Engine, making it possible to browse Fab content without leaving the Unreal Editor.
What license types and royalty rates to sellers get on Fab?
Assets on the site can be made available under a Creative Commons CC-BY license, or Epic’s Standard license: either for free or commercially, with indie and pro pricing tiers.
Vendors will receive the same 88% royalty rate used on the Unreal Engine marketplace and the Sketchfab store: higher than many online marketplaces, but lower than that on ArtStation.
Epic’s blog post includes the “assurance” that it “will not use, or make deals with others to use creators’ content to train generative AI programs”.
When can you migrate Unreal Engine Marketplace assets to Fab?
Unreal Engine Marketplace sellers can now migrate their assets to Fab ahead of the launch.
Unmigrated assets will be transferred automatically under their existing license terms when the Unreal Engine Marketplace is switched off, which coincides with the launch of Fab.
However, Epic Games is offering a temporary 100% revenue share on Standard licensed products until the end of 2024, to encourage creators to migrate their products manually.
When can you migrate Sketchfab and Artstation Marketplace assets to Fab?
Sketchfab sellers will be able to begin migrating assets from “early October 2024”, with the handover of asset sales between the two sites being completed “over the coming months”.
The Sketchfab website will continue to offer its existing 3D portfolio services.
Migration of assets from the ArtStation Marketplace will not begin until 2025, and again, the ArtStation website will continue to offer its existing 2D portfolio services.
When will Fab become available?
The alpha version of Fab is already accessible via a free plugin for Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN). The website itself will launch in “mid-October 2024”.
Read Epic Games’ blog post on the launch timescale for Fab
Read Epic Games’ FAQs about Fab on the website itself
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