ArtStation joins Epic Games: What will change

ArtStation announced a collaboration today with Epic Games that could change the future of the art portfolio ecosystem. At first, things will be the same. Epic acquired ArtStation, but ArtStation will "continue to operate as an independently branded platform." They'll also be "collaborating closely with the Unreal Engine team."ArtStation will reduce some fees for the ArtStation Marketplace – that's a GOOD thing. The fee will be dropped from the standard 30% fee to 12%. If that drop in percentage seems familiar, perhaps you're familiar with the drop in fees for software listed with the Microsoft Store, or the Epic Games Store itself. It would appear that Epic is going to continue to lead the charge in lowering this standard fee that's been in the books for software hosting companies for a while now – 30 to 12 for all!

Another GOOD thing is that ArtStation Learning will be "free to all users for the remainder of 2021." After that, it might have a fee – it'll very likely have some sort of fee, that is to say, but we don't yet know how much it'll be.

Though ArtStation will be under the Epic umbrella, this does not necessarily mean that ArtStation will change the way it supports all varieties of creators and mediums. In fact an Epic Games statement suggested that "Artists will continue to benefit from ArtStation's unique platform as they do today and ArtStation will continue to support creators across mediums and genres – including those that do not use Unreal Engine."

So it would SEEM that this will be a relatively positive move for most people involved with ArtStation. If you've used ArtStation in the past, you know there's a shocking lack of app support through app stores – cross your fingers that this might rectify that. You might also recognize that ArtStation is fantastic, but doesn't get anywhere near the amount of use that it should, given its benefits over competitors. This might also rectify that – but we shall see!