by Ian Carlos Campbell from Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics on (#704RJ)
Creators building experiences in Fortnite are getting a new way to earn revenue. Epic says developers will soon have the ability to make and sell in-game items in Fortnite, and earn a cut of the V-Bucks users spend to buy them. Previously, developers only earned money through Fortnite based on the amount of time users spent on their "islands," the in-game name for third-party experiences creators can offer through Fortnite.Developers will be able to create their consumable and durable in-game items using soon-to-be-released tools in Unreal Editor for Fortnite and a new "Verse-based API," according to Epic. The company also plans to be generous with the revenue split its offering, at least at first. Developers"will ordinarily earn 50 percent of the V-Bucks value from sales in their islands," but from December 2025 through the end of 2026, they'll get to keep 100 percent.Epic says its 50 percent cut - notably more than the 30 percent popularized by Apple's App Store - is to help "contribute to server hosting costs, safety and moderation costs, R&D and other operating expenses" of running Fortnite. It's also a make-good of sorts, since Epic claims it's been "investing and operating the business at a loss."How much 100 percent or 50 percent of "V-Bucks value" actually equals in real money unfortunately isn't as simple as converting Fortnite's digital currency to dollars, though. Epic offers the following explanation for how it calculates V-Bucks value: