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Epic laying off >1000 employees

Metnut said:
Their cash cow (Fortnite) is on the way down.
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I imagine this, first they tried to increase v-bucks cost now this, I expect they are pivoting to extract the most out of their loyal fanbase and lower staff costs to make up for lower engagement/revenue. Or it could just all be greed,
 
Press release from Tim Sweeney is up on the epic website:



This note was sent to Epic employees today:

Today we're laying off over 1000 Epic employees. I'm sorry we're here again. The downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 means we're spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles puts us in a more stable place.


Some of the challenges we're facing are industry-wide challenges: slower growth, weaker spending, and tougher cost economics; current consoles selling less than last generation's; and games competing for time against other increasingly-engaging forms of entertainment.


And some of our challenges are unique to Epic. Despite Fortnite remaining one of the most successful games in the world, we've had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic with every season; we're only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world's billions of smartphones; and in being the industry's vanguard we have taken a lot of bullets in a battle which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers.


Since it's a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren't related to AI. To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can.


What we now need to do is clear: build awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events; accelerate developer tools with greater stability and capability as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we'll be kicking off the next generation of Epic with huge launch plans towards the end of the year.

This isn't our first time being here. Epic survived upheavals in 1990's with the move from 2D to 3D with Unreal 1; in the 2000's building console games with Gears of War; and in 2012 moving to online gaming with Paragon and Fortnite. Each time, we rebuilt our foundations and earned a renewed leadership position.

Market conditions today are the most extreme we've seen since those early days, with massive upheaval in the industry accompanied by massive opportunity for the companies that come out as winners on the other side. That's what we're aiming to do for our players, and we aim to bring other like-minded developers in the industry along on the journey to build an increasingly open and vibrant future of entertainment together.

At Epic, we pride ourselves in only hiring the industry's best, so it is very painful to part with so many talented people. The folks impacted by the layoffs will receive a severance package that includes at least four months of base pay, with more based on tenure. We're also extending Epic-paid healthcare coverage.

For example, in the U.S., they'll receive paid coverage for 6 months. We'll also accelerate their stock options vesting through January 2027 and extend equity exercise options for up to two years.

We'll have a company meeting Thursday to talk about the roadmap in more detail.

-Tim
 
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Big openworld single player game on my PC currently that isn't using that Epic engine, I've already forgot the name of the epic engine., Uncool or something like that.
But this new one is called Black Space.
 
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Thick Thighs Save Lives said:
The folks impacted by the layoffs will receive a severance package that includes at least four months of base pay, with more based on tenure. We're also extending Epic-paid healthcare coverage.

For example, in the U.S., they'll receive paid coverage for 6 months. We'll also accelerate their stock options vesting through January 2027 and extend equity exercise options for up to two years.
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Not bad. Sweeney wants to come across as a good guy, and good for him. His strategy with EGS has been disastrously stupid, but he ain't a bad man.

I still wish Fortnite would die already and Epic focused on something singleplayer though. New Unreal game.

It is kinda funny how a company that runs one of the most successful MP games in the world is doing mass layoffs, while singleplayer companies like CDPR, Warhorse, Larian.. are thriving.
 
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Epic Games employee count estimates are between 3500-4000 as of last year. That's like maybe 20% of their workforce. That's a big cut considering its size.
 
The downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 means we're spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded.
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If the company that runs Fortnite has to say something like this then this industry is truly cooked lol.

I'm starting to wonder if GTAVI, even though it's breaking all sales records won't be seen as a disappointment for Rockstar later this year.
 
Animated GIF
 
TVexperto said:
why
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First season this year went on for about an extra month with too many colabs, they raised v-buck prices and will be reducing the rewards for fornite crew. Lot of people unsubbed at that point.
Metnut said:
Their cash cow (Fortnite) is on the way down.
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The last 3ish years have been pretty strong but they dropped the ball with timing and way too many "hollywood" themed cross-over events and properties. Lost a bit of its original personality.

OG kinda got left in the dust too so them coming back around to all the Foundation and & 7 stuff is just a tad too little too late in their 7th year.

Sweeny talking about redundant positions makes sense tho cause i remember they had kinda said time and time again, that they would deploy special QOL teams to tackle longstanding issues with game itself but nothing was ever surfacing in terms of bugs & improvements.
 
I also would not be surprised if COD goes through some cuts as well. On Xbox, COD used to be the 2nd or 3rd most played game on the daily most played chart. As of right now, it is in 5th place with Rocket League and Minecraft surpassing it.
 
I was talking (over Twitter) with a community manager... (you know the type). I told this person that the industry needed a BIG Correction..... Oh boy, oh boy... They know what's coming... But they will continue to blame capitalism and AI. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
Why they have a 1000 employee in the first place ? They have not released any thing big for years . I don't think it requires a 1000 employee to work on unreal engine and maintain fortnite or whatever that garbage is called.
 
ChorizoPicozo said:
If I remember correctly, those margins are slim because they spend too much on licensing deals.
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Correct. And the game just isn't fun enough to play endlessly for years. Most people just dip in when the seasonal content is good. This creates a feedback loop where they need more elaborate seasonal content, which means a lot more expensive to license and develop for.
 
Im surprised Fornite hasnt imploded yet considering all the licenses hell they must be paying/dealing with considering all their skins. At some point ppl are going to stop buying them.
 
It seems like their bet on Fortnite turning into a platform did not really work out. A lot of the companies they acquired also put out stuff that didn't get a lot of play.

Tim Epic has mismanaged things the past few years.
 
I couldn't imagine having my job security directly tied the engagement numbers on a live service game....that's still making millions by the day, just not as many. Pure corporate greed.
 
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