Epic Games acquires Sketchfab asset store, reduces platform fees to 12 percent

Epic Games has acquired the Sketchfab asset store for an undisclosed fee, and has pledged to immediately lower platform fees to 12 percent.

Sketchfab allows users to publish, share, discover, buy, and sell 3D, VR, and AR content for use in a variety of projects. It contains everything from low poly assets to animated rigs and digital scans, and currently has over 5 million registered users and 8 million unique monthly visitors.

Epic said it wants to make 3D, AR, and VR content more accessible by expanding the Sketchfab creator ecosystem. The Fortnite and Unreal Engine maker also praised the storefront for supporting integrations "across every major 3D creation tool and publishing platform," including major browsers and operating systems. 

"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," said Epic, outlining its plans in a blog post.

"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 well as reducing platforms fees, Epic intends to make Sketchfab Plus, a subscription plan that enables more uploads and supports larger file sizes, available for free. 

"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," said Sketchfab chief exec Alban Denoyel in a separate blog post. "We also increased the number of monthly uploads of Pro plans from 30 to 50. Finally, we will also be retiring the Business plan, and migrate current Business plan customers to our enterprise level features, at no additional cost."