Epic Games launches its new Fab marketplace
Originally posted on 17 September 2024, and updated for the official launch.
Epic Games has launched Fab, its new “open marketplace” for stock CG content.
The site, which came fully online today, will ultimately replace the Unreal Engine Marketplace, Megascans and the ArtStation and Sketchfab marketplaces.
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.
The new Fab 3D asset viewer.
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 includes a range of content for game development, VFX, motion graphics and virtual production, including 3D models, materials, environments, VFX, sound, animations and plugins.
A built-in 3D viewer makes it possible to inspect some 3D assets in wireframe or shaded views, and to view individual PBR material channels like roughness and metalness.
As well as the web portal, Fab 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 old Unreal Engine Marketplace and the Sketchfab store: higher than many online marketplaces, but lower than that on ArtStation.
Epic’s blog post announcing Fab 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?
With the launch of Fab, the old Unreal Engine Marketplace has been disabled.
Unreal Engine Marketplace sellers who migrated their assets to Fab ahead of the launch received a temporary 100% revenue share on Standard licensed products until the end of 2024.
The remaining unmigrated assets are being transferred automatically under their existing license terms.
When can you migrate Sketchfab and Artstation Marketplace assets to Fab?
Sketchfab sellers can also now begin migrating their assets, 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?
Fab is available now.
Read Epic Games’ blog post on the launch of Fab
Read more about Fab in the online documentationb
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