Support NeoGAF

[ChuckeRearmed]

Internet says 4K.

This is 1/4 of the workforce.

I see. Still quite a sizable chunk.

 

[Pokedot]

It sucks for the employees being laid off, but the reality is Epic is just adapting to current market conditions. It must be very expensive to maintain sizeable dev teams to constantly keep updating Fortnite throughout the year with new content while the game is at a stage it's not growing anymore.

 

[Holammer]

What a shame. I'm not touching EGS with a ten foot pole, but I genuinely think Sweeney is a pretty decent guy.
Never tried Fornite myself, but the trend among my friend's kids is that they returned to Roblox and moved over to Counterstrike as they grow older. Those are kids that used to wish for V-bucks gift cards for birthdays etc. Does the gameplay loop grow boring? People that actually play the game will have to answer that.

 

[Plague Doctor]

But but they are making that GasS Fortnite Forever money?! The promised land

 

[Jet Set Willy]

Press release from Tim Sweeney is up on the epic website:

https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/todays-layoffs

---

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

If even they're losing money on the biggest GaaS outside of Roblox, then the industry as we know it really is fucked.

Hopefully that means we get the industry as we used to know it back, along with Unreal Tournament.

 

[diffusionx]

It sucks for the employees being laid off, but the reality is Epic is just adapting to current market conditions. It must be very expensive to maintain sizeable dev teams to constantly keep updating Fortnite throughout the year with new content while the game is at a stage it's not growing anymore.

I don't think the problem is core Fortnite it's how they did stuff like a Minecraft style game and a racing game and a music game and all of it was forgotten in a week.

 

[HRK69]

 

[Sohurmk833]

For what exactly do they need that many people in the first place?

 

[Interfectum]

From what I've seen personally, I've got three kids under 9, and they and their friends used to play Fortnite constantly. Now they don't even mention it. It's all Minecraft, Roblox, FNAF, or whatever they're watching on Netflix or YouTube. They went from being really into Fortnite to not caring at all, and the same goes for their friends. Kind of interesting how that lines up with what's happening more broadly.

 

[ProtoByte]

Billions from Fortnite and still layoffs… corporate gaming moment

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.

Good that this gets pointed out early in the thread.

The licensing costs of Fortnite would not be unlikely to outdo the actual revenue being brought in. We know from the Insomniac that Disney at least is absolutely insane with their fees.

Sounds like people are finally starting to get off the Fortnite train - and tbh, that in itself is healthy. But these big long term games losing popularity comes with a tradeoff.

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 don't like Tim Sweeney, but I don't know if I'd call it "mismanagement". Even with the licensing thing, there's a strong argument that these fees have shot through the roof because of overall industry trends, and that Fortnite probably wouldn't have lasted ~10 years without it.

A ~decade of cumulatively paying 1000+ people counts for a lot.

 

[CowboyLou]

Press release from Tim Sweeney is up on the epic website:

https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/todays-layoffs

---

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

Wow, I didn't think I'd ever hear Tim say "Unreal" again.

 

[Hari Seldon]

What a shame. I'm not touching EGS with a ten foot pole, but I genuinely think Sweeney is a pretty decent guy.
Never tried Fornite myself, but the trend among my friend's kids is that they returned to Roblox and moved over to Counterstrike as they grow older. Those are kids that used to wish for V-bucks gift cards for birthdays etc. Does the gameplay loop grow boring? People that actually play the game will have to answer that.

I play the game casually with my friends. Usually as drunken shenanigans after playing a "real" game. Game is fun but not fun enough to play more than a few hours per month. It succeeds at being an extremely low stakes casual experience that can be played 1-6 beers in.

 

[MiguelItUp]

They raised the price of V bucks and made changes to the game that their community isn't happy with. They're essentially pushing away a lot of their player base. They should probably pull back on all the collaborations and shit to save money. Shame they laid off 1000 people.

 

[Fbh]

That's a lot of people. You'd think between Fortnite and UE5 they'd be printing money. But maybe Fortnite is slowly on the way out?

Internet says 4K.

This is 1/4 of the workforce.

Not justifying the layoffs but I still have to wonder why companies like these need 4K employees.
Like idk, you have 1000 working on Fortnite, 1000 working on the engine and then maybe 500 on other stuff like accounting, sales, marketing, etc. What are the other 1500 doing?

 

[Arsic]

https://steamcharts.com/app/730

CS2 can hold 1.5 million players. Surely Fortnite is doing double that minimum.

If you've got millions on at any given time spending money on your stuff then you are not needing to cut 1000 people.

Likely AI overtaking roles.

 

[Pagusas]

While this 1000% sucks for all involved, I at least appreciate they are doing the right thing with guarenteed severance and healthcare. Its way to rare to see that lately.

 

[PeteBull]

Hopefully its a good sign of fortnite profits getting smaller and smaller, by next gen those fortnite alike gaas shit gonna be back to niche lvls, as it should be

 

[AJUMP23]

Here is the letter

 

[Esquie]

Call me naive but that's a nice statement from Sweeney. He's not beating around the bush or trying to sugarcoat what's happening, he's upfront about it.

 

[Loomy]

why

My guess is they hired a lot of people thinking Unreal would find a permanent spot in the film making stack. Hasn't quite happened.

Because we close to april. New fiscal year.

Epic is Jan-Dec

 

[Mr Moose]

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.

Why do they need that many people? It's just Fortnite, the store and Unreal engine.

I bought it on Steam a day before The Game Awards. Bastards.

 

[Pokedot]

https://steamcharts.com/app/730

CS2 can hold 1.5 million players. Surely Fortnite is doing double that minimum.

If you've got millions on at any given time spending money on your stuff then you are not needing to cut 1000 people.

Likely AI overtaking roles.

CS2 doesn't need to maintain a big team to keep updating the game. I think Valve has like 3 devs working on the game judging by the lack of updates.

 

[Interfectum]

Why do they need that many people? It's just Fortnite, the store and Unreal engine.

Fortnite is launched across a ton of hardware configurations and is constantly updated with new content. Running a GaaS of that magnitude takes a LOT of people and money.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

That is such an insane amount of employees to be able to shave off - they must have so many (way too many, seems likely).

 

[Kerotan]

Dayum. The number of people who have lost their jobs in this industry over the last 2-3 years is crazy.

Overall game developer numbers are increasing though..the industry is expanding.

 

[Loomy]

Should have kept the battlebus destroyed longer.

 

[ssringo]

Not even Fortnite makes Fortnite money.

 

[Topher]

Sounds like Tencent called

 

[John Bilbo]

 

[squidilix]

You can't be serious.........

When I use GOG Galaxy to see how many games I own, I have over 900 (Console/PC - Steam/Epic/Bnet/GOG).

Am I happy? No, I don't give a fuck… They're just JPEG images.

Digital distribution and the centralization of all games on a single platform is undoubtedly the worst thing happen to the video game industry. Especially on a platform supposedly free like the PC.

Some will say, "But it's free on PC, I can buy my games elsewhere than on Steam… but only with Steam keys, no way I buy Epic Games or GoG keys"
Or, a wave of boycotts will erupt as soon as a game becomes exclusive to Epic Games or Xbox PC.

Do you prefer your PC or Steam? If it's Steam, then you're no better than Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation fans.

And I know Epic Game Launcher sucks... but it's just a fking launcher..

And pls, don't say "But my friend are on Steam"... BULLSHIT, everyone use Discord on 2026

 

[zeroluck]

I wonder why there was no outrage about Unreal Engine taking engine programmers' jobs and making games look homogenous and run like dog shit, like we have with AI currently.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I'd rather buy it on Steam, yeah.

 

[Loomy]

Sounds like Tencent called

Need to offset the Highguard loss somewhere lol

 

[Holammer]

CS2 doesn't need to maintain a big team to keep updating the game. In fact, I think Valve has like 3 devs working on the game judging by the lack of updates.

Probably more like a dozen, almost a dozen... At least 10 people!
But the fact that all the cosmetics & maps are community made with no Hollywood IP license costs involved makes it so much cheaper.

The real crime is the low attention TF2 receives. More people play it than Marathon and it haven't had a content update since Oct 2017

 

[AJUMP23]

I guess these are going away too.

 

[Loomy]

I wonder why there was no outrage about Unreal Engine taking engine programmers' jobs and making games look homogenous and run like dog shit, like we have with AI currently.

I've done this so many times on this forum already. But I can find you 5 Unreal Engine games that look nothing alike.

 

[IDKFA]

Did anything happen? Or is this just corporate greed?
Or another case of people getting replaced with AI?

I'll go with greed.

They just increased the cost of V Bucks to "keep the lights on", even though Fortnite alone pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars per month. That one game makes them billions per year!

 

[Pokedot]

Probably more like a dozen, almost a dozen... At least 10 people!
But the fact that all the cosmetics & maps are community made with no Hollywood IP license costs involved makes it so much cheaper.

The real crime is the low attention TF2 receives. More people play it than Marathon and it haven't had a content update since Oct 2017

I read somewhere Valve makes over $100M a month from CS2. Just pure profit for them with low overhead and the game's CCU remains consistent throughout the years without needing a lot of content updates. Any studio would die to have something like CS2.

 

[pqueue]

get fucked, Epic.

hope you enjoy being 100% owned by the Chinese by the time this is all done.

 

[GrayChild]

Let me guess. Hiring tons of people during the pandemic, then shortly after that realizing the industry has imploded on itself.

 

[Polelock]

Spending more than they are making, I have a snaking suspicion that this is coming from the Mouse House and their large stake. Fuck EPIC.

 

[tr1p1ex]

You all aren't playing Fortnite enough! I blame this place.

 

[Solarstrike]

 

[CuteFaceJay]

Their cash cow (Fortnite) is on the way down.

Save the world on switch 2 gonna bring everyone back in

 

[JCK75]

Gotta allocate more cash for EGS exclusives that don't sell... it's sure to work this next time.

 

[zeroluck]

I've done this so many times on this forum already. But I can find you 5 Unreal Engine games that look nothing alike.

Nowhere close to the old days when games felt distinctly different, even now I can almost immediately tell whether a game is made in UE5, despite a different coat of paint

 

[Emmy Ator Best]

He can't stop winning!

 

[LuxFixxins]

I'm not saying corps aren't trying to make ALL the money, but this kind of thread always shows how little people know about business, economics and what exactly profit does.

Sad for all those laid off.

 

[LuxFixxins]

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.

This has always amazed me. How do they pay for all that? Just the legal fees to negotiate the deals have to be crazy. No less the revenue split and other overhead.

 

[BennyBlanco]

When I use GOG Galaxy to see how many games I own, I have over 900 (Console/PC - Steam/Epic/Bnet/GOG).

Am I happy? No, I don't give a fuck… They're just JPEG images.

Digital distribution and the centralization of all games on a single platform is undoubtedly the worst thing happen to the video game industry. Especially on a platform supposedly free like the PC.

Some will say, "But it's free on PC, I can buy my games elsewhere than on Steam… but only with Steam keys, no way I buy Epic Games or GoG keys"
Or, a wave of boycotts will erupt as soon as a game becomes exclusive to Epic Games or Xbox PC.

Do you prefer your PC or Steam? If it's Steam, then you're no better than Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation fans.

And I know Epic Game Launcher sucks... but it's just a fking launcher..

People use Steam because it's good. It's the best gaming service. Workshop, forums, reviews, community stuff, steam deck support, wide range of controller support, etc.

I don't even hate EGS as much as the average PC gamer but why would I ever use EGS over Steam when a game is the same price on both? As an act of altruism?

GoG offers a unique service and fills a niche that nobody else does. I buy stuff there all the time.

BULLSHIT, everyone use Discord on 2026