Epic acquires games, media, and entertainment development platform ArtStation

Epic Games has acquired ArtStation, a platform that’s focused on helping people in games, media, and entertainment develop and share their portfolios, browse a marketplace, and look for jobs. 

Epic is making this move to push growth for the creative community through supporting a team and platform that has a history of supporting those creators. 

For now, ArtStation will continue to run its operations as a completely independently branded platform. The first real change will be the ArtStation and Unreal Engine teams working more closely together. This more focused collaboration will work to “empower the creative community” by providing expanded tools, resources, and connections. 

“We are thrilled that ArtStation is joining Epic as we work to accelerate the development and growth of the creator community worldwide,” said Marc Petit, VP and general manager of Unreal Engine. “The ArtStation leadership team brings tremendous talent and an unparalleled track record of supporting a vibrant creator community and ecosystem. We look forward to working with them to provide creators with access to even more resources and tools, empowering them to do their best work.”

Despite this move, ArtStation will continue providing support to creators who use other technology outside of the Unreal Engine and Epic’s ecosystem. 

The ArtStation Marketplace is also updating its fees and margins so that its users will be able to do more on the platform. 

Standard earning fees are dropping from 30 percent to 12 percent for standard users and from 20 percent to eight percent for ArtStation Pro members. ArtStation Learning, the platform’s streaming video library for artists, will also be free to all members for the remainder of 2021.

“Over the last seven years, we’ve worked hard to enable creators to showcase their work, connect with opportunities and make a living doing what they love,” said Leonard Teo, CEO and co-founder of ArtStation. “As part of Epic, we will be able to advance this mission and give back to the community in ways that we weren’t able to on our own, while retaining the ArtStation name and spirit.” 

This is just the latest of Epic’s recent acquisitions. The company also brought in Tonic Games Group, the Fall Guys developers, the technology and business section of RAD Game Tools, and more.