Epic Games, at its State of Unreal conference today at GDC, announced "Creator Economy 2.0," where 40% of net revenue from Fortnite's item store and "related real money purchases" will be made available to eligible Fortnite content creators. This new system will sit alongside the Support-A-Creator program, which is "returning to its roots as an affiliate marketing program for streamers and social media content creators."

"Money in the economy comes from player consumption in the item store, and Fortnite generates billions of dollars in revenue annually from player purchases," Saxs Persson, Executive Vice President of the Fortnite Ecosystem Fortnite's players are the driving force behind the company's growth," said Saxs Persson, Executive Vice President of Fortnite Ecosystem, at today's State of Unreal conference. "Fortnite players tend to shop more in the item store because they enjoy playing on islands. The creators of popular islands bring real value to the Fortnite ecosystem, and we intend to share the resulting revenue with them."

A detailed breakdown of the system can be found on the Fortnite Creator Portal (opens in new tab), but to give a quick overview, 40% of the total net revenue from Fortnite's item store and "related real money purchases" is " Engagement Pool" and distributed monthly to eligible content creators. This pool includes "corporations and other legal entities" and island creators over the age of 18, although Epic is considering opening this program to younger island creators as well.

The actual revenue distributed each month will depend on a variety of factors:

The existing Support-A-Creator program (opens in new tab), which debuted in 2018 as a way for fans to support their favorite creators, is a streamer and social media content creators, will remain as an affiliate program. However, according to Epic, it will be removed from Fortnite islands because it is no longer really needed: "Players can now show their support for their favorite creator's islands simply by playing them.

While this new system is "transformational" for Fortnite's island creators, Epic believes there are spinoff benefits for players as well.

"The benefits of this new approach are rooted in fun and rewarding the creative work of everyone, both you and Epic. No need to design cunning monetization loops or extractive gated items." Create an island that players love - that's all it takes to become part of the new economy.

Creator Economy 2.0 is available now. For more information or to sign up, visit the Island Creator Program page (opens in new tab).