Epic Games Purchases Sketchfab

[ILikeFeet]

after Artstation comes Sketchfab, I guess

I am excited to share that Sketchfab is joining the Epic Games family! You can read the official announcement here.

Almost 10 years ago, we started Sketchfab to make 3D content accessible through the web. We launched the first web-based 3D player on the market, and became one of the leading services for publishing and finding 3D content. Our community is now 5 million strong, and we are proud of what we have accomplished together. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our community, our customers, our partners, our investors and our team: we wouldn't be here without all of you.

We will remain an independently branded service with the same mission and vision, while working closely with Epic Games. We started collaborating with Epic earlier this year through an Epic MegaGrant, and are excited to accelerate those efforts. We are also already integrated with various Epic Games products like RealityCapture and ArtStation. We will maintain and expand our integration efforts with all creation tools and 3D/VR/AR platforms, so you can easily upload to and import from Sketchfab everywhere.

Lower fees for our Sellers

As part of our shared goal to make Sketchfab's offerings more profitable to creators, we are reducing Sketchfab's store fees to 12%, effective immediately.

Sketchfab Plus is now free

We are also making all the Plus plan features free, which means more uploads and larger file size at no cost. Current Plus customers will be automatically upgraded to our Pro plan at no additional cost, with the option to downgrade to free if they wish to do so. We will also be retiring the Business plan, and migrate current Business plan customers to our enterprise level features, at no additional cost. You can read more about those changes in our dedicated FAQ.

I'm looking forward to this next chapter with you!

Thank you,

Alban
Co-founder and CEO

Click to shrink...

Sketchfab is Joining the Epic Games Family

We are happy to share that Sketchfab is joining the Epic Games family! Together we will make 3D content more accessible.

sketchfab.com

We are excited to announce that today Sketchfab has joined the Epic Games family.

Sketchfab makes it easy to discover, edit, buy, and sell 3D content directly through their web-based service and is home to 4 million 3D assets. Their technology has integrations across every major 3D creation tool and publishing platform and is compatible across all major browsers and operating systems, on both desktop and mobile. By joining forces, Epic and Sketchfab will be able to make 3D, AR and VR content more accessible and grow the creator ecosystem, which are critical to an open and interconnected Metaverse.

Going forward we will continue to enable all of the integrations in place with Sketchfab's technology, as well as ensure the company's offerings will remain compatible with each of the different tools and platforms they support. This includes wholeheartedly supporting Unity and other engines. Sketchfab will continue to operate as an independently branded service while collaborating closely with the Unreal Engine team.

As part of our shared goal to make Sketchfab's offerings more profitable to creators, we will be reducing Sketchfab's store fees to 12% so that 3D creators will get even more value when using Sketchfab.

"The Sketchfab team has done an incredible job opening up the world of 3D content on the web and enabling anyone to edit and publish content online," said Marc Petit, VP and General Manager of Unreal Engine. "As the adoption of real-time 3D technology continues to grow, demand for web-based solutions will only increase. We are excited to work together with the Sketchfab team to empower even more creators.

"We built Sketchfab with a mission to empower a new era of creativity and provide a service for creators to showcase their work online and make 3D content accessible," said Alban Denoyel, CEO and co-founder of Sketchfab.

"Joining Epic will enable us to accelerate the development of Sketchfab and our powerful online toolset, all while providing an even greater experience for creators. We are proud to work alongside Epic to build the Metaverse and enable creators to take their work even further."

Click to shrink...

Sketchfab is joining Epic Games!

Sketchfab is now part of the Epic Games family. Together we will enable more creators to share and find 3D content across the web.

www.epicgames.com

 

[Accoun]

Something something monopoly?

 

[delete12345]

Something something monopoly?

Click to shrink...

I guess they are trying to compete against Unity Assets Store with their Unreal Marketplace.

 

[Richardi]

Reality capture and sketchfab, damn...

 

[Dizfy]

Not really liking where this is going

 

[EloKa]

Steam is a monopoly but owning the full development pipeline and dictating prices and practices is fine cause of uhm ... COMPETITION

 

[Akronis]

Not really liking where this is going

Click to shrink...

Same.

 

[wwm0nkey]

Yeah I think this is a bit much honestly

 

[InquisitorAles]

I mean, it's great that they lowered down fees for creators, but it's worrying that Epic is hoarding all those gamedev services and middleware.

 

[neptunez]

Epic is trying to monoplize game development?

 

[Raigor]

They want to force Unreal Engine to everyone lol

 

[TioChuck]

Unity pretty much dominates on mobile, if Fortnite dies out and Godot and now Lumberyard becomes viable, Epic is in big trouble, funneling the tools exclusive into UE at least delays that.

Sweeney's dream to be the master of the metaverse will require some shitty moves.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Epic could fairly easily kill Substance Designer, soon after Substance Painter too. It's not as difficult as people think, especially Designer.

 

[Just Great]

We already have an Adobe and an Autodesk. We really don't need anymore asset creation megacorps buying up (and fucking up) every tool they can get their hands on.

 

[vixolus]

Damn Sweeney making a Monopo-

"Going forward we will continue to enable all of the integrations in place with Sketchfab's technology, as well as ensure the company's offerings will remain compatible with each of the different tools and platforms they support. This includes wholeheartedly supporting Unity and other engines. Sketchfab will continue to operate as an independently branded service while collaborating closely with the Unreal Engine team."

oh wait

 

[catswaller]

Weird one. Is this a play to compete better with unity in the architecture visualization industry? edit: oh sketchfab not sketchUp

Epic could fairly easily kill Substance Designer, soon after Substance Painter too. It's not as difficult as people think, especially Designer.

Click to shrink...

What? How often do people win against adobe? And substance is extremely entrenched in studios anyway.

 

[eonden]

Damn Sweeney making a Monopo-

"Going forward we will continue to enable all of the integrations in place with Sketchfab's technology, as well as ensure the company's offerings will remain compatible with each of the different tools and platforms they support. This includes wholeheartedly supporting Unity and other engines. Sketchfab will continue to operate as an independently branded service while collaborating closely with the Unreal Engine team."

oh wait

Click to shrink...

In the end they will do an Adobe were all their programs are technically independent but the workflow between all of them is so much better (as well as being covered in only one payment instead of having to mix for increased costs) that they will be technically a monopoly. They are basically vertically integrating a fuck ton of development tools to try and force everyone to use Unreal Engine because it is the most economical way to get everything in one go.

 

[vixolus]

In the end they will do an Adobe were all their programs are technically independent but the workflow between all of them is so much better (as well as being covered in only one payment instead of having to mix for increased costs) that they will be technically a monopoly. They are basically vertically integrating a fuck ton of development tools to try and force everyone to use Unreal Engine because it is the most economical way to get everything in one go.

Click to shrink...

that's still not a monopoly...

 

[Arex]

Wtf.. Marmoset next I guess? Better than Adobe at least lol

 

[eonden]

that's still not a monopoly...

Click to shrink...

If you dont think Adobe is basically a monopoly in their sector I have a bridge to sell you.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Weird one. Is this a play to compete better with unity in the architecture visualization industry? edit: oh sketchfab not sketchUp


What? How often do people win against adobe? And substance is extremely entrenched in studios anyway.

Click to shrink...

Well first, Substance wasn't started by Adobe, they had to buy them as Photoshop was losing ground massively in the gaming sector.

Second, the core of Substance Designer is essentially a renderer and a node graph. It is very easy for Epic to bridge the gap and the fact that people keep pushing for integration of Designer in Unreal (which has been done) implies it is pretty much ingrained into the asset pipeline, but also at a point where more and more devs want runtime use of Designer materials. Painter is a bit more complicated, but not for much longer.

Anyway I don't feel like debating about this, so we'll see.

 

[Sidebuster]

Damn Sweeney making a Monopo-

"Going forward we will continue to enable all of the integrations in place with Sketchfab's technology, as well as ensure the company's offerings will remain compatible with each of the different tools and platforms they support. This includes wholeheartedly supporting Unity and other engines. Sketchfab will continue to operate as an independently branded service while collaborating closely with the Unreal Engine team."

oh wait

Click to shrink...

Yeah when my bank was bought out they promised they'd grandfather in free bank accounts and never add fees. That lasted 5 years. I've seen corporations do the same. Buy a company. Promise nothing will change not even the name. Then a bit later, the owners leave. Later after that they decide to integrate the company where they once said they were staying independent. Then lastly the change up the costs or fees to whatever they were planning to in the beginning.

It's basically gaslighting. It happens over 5+ years so simps don't notice.

 

[boris_feinbrand]

Epic is trying to monoplize game development?

Click to shrink...

Can't let Adobe buy everything.

 

[CatAssTrophy]

Things don't have to be a Pure 100% Certified Old-Fashioned Style "To The T" Legally Defined Monopoly for it to be something that's shitty and unethical or needing to be blocked by new legislation. We don't gotta go to bat for these big companies, guys.

 

[Deleted member 17184]

In the end they will do an Adobe were all their programs are technically independent but the workflow between all of them is so much better (as well as being covered in only one payment instead of having to mix for increased costs) that they will be technically a monopoly. They are basically vertically integrating a fuck ton of development tools to try and force everyone to use Unreal Engine because it is the most economical way to get everything in one go.

Click to shrink...

I don't think it's that easy. Epic can target some devs, but not all of them like Adobe. It's not like AAA studios that have their own proprietary engines will stop using them. I'm assuming their strategy is much like Microsoft's with Havok and Simplygon. Buy and make deals with other companies for full integration.

 

[eonden]

I don't think it's that easy. Epic can target some devs, but not all of them like Adobe. It's not like AAA studios that have their own proprietary engines will stop using them. I'm assuming their strategy is much like Microsoft's with Havok and Simplygon. Buy and make deals with other companies for full integration.

Click to shrink...

By "doing an Adobe" I mean that its ecosystem will work flawlessly inside, but if you want to use third party apps that replace some of the Epic ecosystem ones, it will be annoying, adding extra time that will be costly in the end. You make it annoying enough to use other services together with yours and your vertical integration is so streamlined and easy to use that you push people to use your service exclusively making it harder for single competitors to even get close (aka, the current Adobe situation were if you need to use more than one product covered by Adobe you REALLY feel like you need to use Adobe).

They can also do a MS in the terms of what they did with Slacks. You can buy / create a competitor for a challenger / market you are interested in, and by adding it into the major subscription you already pay for (Team added to MS365) and integrated into the other services, it becomes hard to find an economic excuse not to use it over others (Slack in this case).

It is also important to notice that Epic is now not only targetting videogame development with Unreal, but also film / tv / everything that uses 3D rendering (Which is basicalyl everything including car UIs).

 

[headspawn]

.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I almost worked for them early on. Could have been rich now doh!

 

[fourfourfun]

Epic is trying to monoplize game development?

Click to shrink...

Development and Retail. They want the entire pie and everybody can jump to their tune.

And it is nice to see everybody seeing their play here, especially with their Apple case going on.

 

[Deleted member 2752]

Damn Sweeney making a Monopo-

"Going forward we will continue to enable all of the integrations in place with Sketchfab's technology, as well as ensure the company's offerings will remain compatible with each of the different tools and platforms they support. This includes wholeheartedly supporting Unity and other engines. Sketchfab will continue to operate as an independently branded service while collaborating closely with the Unreal Engine team."

oh wait

Click to shrink...

Got a bridge to sell you, too.

 

[fourfourfun]

Damn Sweeney making a Monopo-

Click to shrink...

You can make your portfolio work independently, but you can also make it so architecturally and commercially unviable to not put everything under one roof that you can't. Once you own the whole lot, you can start to do things like incentivise free tools and greater revenue cut, but only if you make your game exclusive to EGS.

 

[Deleted member 17184]

By "doing an Adobe" I mean that its ecosystem will work flawlessly inside, but if you want to use third party apps that replace some of the Epic ecosystem ones, it will be annoying, adding extra time that will be costly in the end. You make it annoying enough to use other services together with yours and your vertical integration is so streamlined and easy to use that you push people to use your service exclusively making it harder for single competitors to even get close (aka, the current Adobe situation were if you need to use more than one product covered by Adobe you REALLY feel like you need to use Adobe).

They can also do a MS in the terms of what they did with Slacks. You can buy / create a competitor for a challenger / market you are interested in, and by adding it into the major subscription you already pay for (Team added to MS365) and integrated into the other services, it becomes hard to find an economic excuse not to use it over others (Slack in this case).

It is also important to notice that Epic is now not only targetting videogame development with Unreal, but also film / tv / everything that uses 3D rendering (Which is basicalyl everything including car UIs).

Click to shrink...

To be fair, Teams did a lot of innovation. I think people started to use it more not because of the integration, but because of its features. Just like Zoom and Google Meet also boomed over the past 18 months.

But I do agree that they intend to make it as easy as possible to have everything in one place. I just can't see them being extreme and having tons of restrictions. If they do, it won't be a great business move. Devs tools like these need to be multiplatform to succeed.

 

[eonden]

To be fair, Teams did a lot of innovation. I think people started to use it more not because of the integration, but because of its features. Just like Zoom and Google Meet also boomed over the past 18 months.

But I do agree that they intend to make it as easy as possible to have everything in one place. I just can't see them being extreme and having tons of restrictions. If they do, it won't be a great business move. Devs tools like these need to be multiplatform to succeed.

Click to shrink...

Teams would have died if it hadnt been included in MS365. The original Teams at launch was horrible and only got traction because of that. And then it started to eat into Slacks territory before 2020. And well, the only Teams innovation I see in my general use is that it is seemingly integrated into the MS ecosystem I already used for other stuff (such as outlook calendar, and onedrive) while lacking some extra functionalities Slack had (which they are slowly adding).

Also, you dont really need to have tons of restrictions, it is about (like Adobe), adding enough micro annoyances when not using your full stack (vs using your full stack) to make it worth it. When you are working 8h a day with a full stack, those microannoyances can add up to 1 hour a week or more, which makes paying a "premium" for full stack (be it it being more expensive, or not using a better product) worth it.

(Edit: I think my hatred for having to use Teams and Adobe products permeates my posts in this thread lmao).

 

[Sonix]

So basically anyone who wants to make a video game *has* to go through epic at some point, and it just so happens that it will be so much easier and even cheaper if you then just go with the whole package. Assets are free to use if you use Unreal, so use Unreal. Unreal is cheaper if you sell through EGS, so you sell there. Epic changes a little bit about their terms and conditions and youre wholly locked in.

Nice freedom you have there Tim Sweeney, go f yourself.

 

[Black_Stride]

Epics plan for world domination is working.

Im already a:
Mixer user.
Unreal Engine user.
SketchFab user.
Artstation user.
Megascans user.
Metahumans user.

Once they purchase Marvelous Desinger/CLO their domination will be all but complete.

Literally the only thing im missing from being a completely free freelance developer is I dont user Blender dont @ me.

 

[Deleted member 17184]

Teams would have died if it hadnt been included in MS365. The original Teams at launch was horrible and only got traction because of that. And then it started to eat into Slacks territory before 2020. And well, the only Teams innovation I see in my general use is that it is seemingly integrated into the MS ecosystem I already used for other stuff (such as outlook calendar, and onedrive) while lacking some extra functionalities Slack had (which they are slowly adding).

Also, you dont really need to have tons of restrictions, it is about (like Adobe), adding enough micro annoyances when not using your full stack (vs using your full stack) to make it worth it. When you are working 8h a day with a full stack, those microannoyances can add up to 1 hour a week or more, which makes paying a "premium" for full stack (be it it being more expensive, or not using a better product) worth it.

(Edit: I think my hatred for having to use Teams and Adobe products permeates my posts in this thread lmao).

Click to shrink...

Basically, Teams has a much more robust call feature. During a pandemic, that's a big deal. Even so, Slack isn't dead. Not sure where you work, but it's big in the gaming industry last I heard.

Anyway, the only difference I can see with this deal is that Sketchfab might be native in UE while you'll need to download the plugin for Unity. Which you already have to do, so nothing changes there. If anything, Epic needs to be careful to not make UE too bloated.

 

[virtua_44]

EGS competing with Steam was good bc it broke horizontal monopoly, but is now creating vertical monopoly? Not sure what to think exactly.

 

[ShinobiOfTheWind]

Did not like the ArtStation acquisition, nor this, not one bit.

Slightly unrelated, but though the Wix acquisition of DeviantArt might seem horrendous on the surface (especially now, after the Pegasus expose), it's hopefully a lesser worry than EPIC (unless Wix themselves are acquired by someone next LMAO).

 

[dude]

As a Unity dev - Not liking where this is going :|

 

[Punchline]

this shit sucks

also stop using family to refer to a conglomerate, that shit is so pathetic

 

[Calabi]

Epics plan for world domination is working.

Im already a:
Mixer user.
Unreal Engine user.
SketchFab user.
Artstation user.
Megascans user.
Metahumans user.

Once they purchase Marvelous Desinger/CLO their domination will be all but complete.

Literally the only thing im missing from being a completely free freelance developer is I dont user Blender dont @ me.

Click to shrink...

Or they'll buy up Daz Studio and that'll be the end ..... oh wait maybe not.

It really is a scary place we are going down with the ownership of a all these companies. It's not just happening in this area its in gaming everywhere, its like theres a sudden fire sale on companies and everyones desperate to sell and own them. I don't want to say it could be a sign of something but it might.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Or they'll buy up Daz Studio and that'll be the end ..... oh wait maybe not.

It really is a scary place we are going down with the ownership of a all these companies. It's not just happening in this area its in gaming everywhere, its like theres a sudden fire sale on companies and everyones desperate to sell and own them. I don't want to say it could be a sign of something but it might.

Click to shrink...

Open source will continue to gain ground. I'm not worried about Epic's purchases.

 

[Sonix]

Open source will continue to gain ground. I'm not worried about Epic's purchases.

Click to shrink...

Open Source productivity software like... OpenOffice against MS Office? Doesn't work out so well.
OSS Communication like Jabber against Slack/Teams/WhatsApp..
OSS creativity software like Gimp vs. Photoshop..

You get the idea. Even if something is comparable and available (like Blender) how do you beat INtegration from Top-to-Bottom? Its way too attrative to turn that down from a business perspective.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Open Source productivity software like... OpenOffice against MS Office? Doesn't work out so well.
OSS Communication like Jabber against Slack/Teams/WhatsApp..
OSS creativity software like Gimp vs. Photoshop..

You get the idea. Even if something is comparable and available (like Blender) how do you beat INtegration from Top-to-Bottom? Its way too attrative to turn that down from a business perspective.

Click to shrink...

USD format and unified material format, open-source renderer eventually being supported in game engines. There's a lot that is happening that will make it more difficult for Epic to justify spending money on its own proprietary components.

Anyway like I said before I don't have the energy to argue about this, I have been calling out where things would go for almost fifteen years and have always been right.

I remember how people on the old site were telling me that I was crazy in 2008 when I said the physical format would essentially be dead in two generations and then streaming-gaming would start to take off. That game engines would be used for architecture rendering and movies and as simulators. Then more recently that an open-source competitor would emerge to compete with Unreal.

I'm not worried about Epic becoming a monopoly, it won't become one. It will only push for more interest in fueling open-source development.

Epic's best short-term solution is to bring down their license fees to 0%.

 

[pixelpatron]

You want to make digital art? You must pass through our gate. Scary stuff indeed.

 

[Buckle]

Something about these big companies referring to themselves as a family always makes my skin crawl for some reason.

 

[Dizfy]

I really feel like this "Metaverse" stuff is just building towards a big walled garden within the game development space. Unlike the openness they preach in the courtroom

 

[The Lord of Cereal]

Epic is really making moves to become a massive player in the gaming space, damn. Not exactly a fan but hopefully it won't be to detrimental honestly

 

[Nintendo]

Well, congrats to them and Epic on this acquisition!

 

[Soviet]

Shame Epic didn't manage to buy Allegorithmic before Adobe.