Tim Sweeney at Unite 2025: Unity’s in-app purchase APIs coming to Unreal Engine devs

• Unity is bringing its new in-app purchase SDK to Unreal Engine developers.
• Those devs will be able to handle cross-platform purchases using Unity's in-app purchase APIs.

"Today we’re announcing that Unity is going to bring their new in-app purchase SDK to all Unreal Engine developers," says Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney, appearing on stage at Unite 2025.

"This means that Unreal Engine devs, like Unity developers, will be able to choose Unity’s in-app purchase APIs to handle cross-platform purchases, entitlements, pricing logic, and everything else."

As Unity’s six-hour developer conference got underway this morning, Sweeney was invited to the stage to discuss a new partnership bringing Unity games to Fortnite and Unity’s SDK to Unreal developers.

"You probably didn’t expect to see me here," he said. "At Epic, we make this other engine that begins with a U, but we also make the Epic Games Store which has a huge number of awesome Unity games.

"Recently we got together with Unity and we realised that we all share a common view of the need to support fair and open digital platforms."

Unreal and Unity Unite

Sweeney noted that devs who integrate Unity’s SDK into their apps will be able to utilise its functions across all platforms and payment services. He highlighted the value of this in a time when "mobile platforms are finally opening up to competing stores and competing payment methods" - the consequence of years-long legal battles leading to legislative changes for Apple and Google.

"One of the big challenges for developers now is the fragmentation of tools and publishing pathways. And just like the early days of the web, we believe that companies need to work together to build open and interoperable systems, and we’re doing this now," he added.

"The ultimate goal is for developers to be able to build games and then deploy them anywhere they want - mobile app stores, PC stores, on console, and in games that support developer-made content."

The latter includes Fortnite, and Tim Sweeney shared that Unity developers will be able to publish games directly to the platform next year. He also confirmed Unity-made games will be eligible to appear in its discovery system alongside games built in Unreal.

They will also be able to participate in Fortnite’s economy.

He said Fortnite is evolving towards an "open metaverse economy".

Unity president and CEO Matt Bromberg said, "We’re excited to partner with Epic Games to create more opportunities for game developers around the world. Choice and open systems create growth for everyone in the gaming ecosystem."