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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Allegedly the devs at Mediatonic (Fall Guys' dev) have been heavily impacted by this round of layoffs as well.

Epic Games Inc., the maker of the popular Fortnite video game, is laying off 870 employees, according to people familiar with the matter.

The job cuts, which affect about 16% of its workforce, were announced in a memo to staff, said the people, who asked not to be named disclosing information that’s not yet public. Epic didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Employees who were affected by the job cuts will receive six months of severance and health insurance, as well as accelerated stock vesting.

Based in Cary, North Carolina, Epic’s Fortnite has more than 400 million users. It also produces the Unreal Engine, a popular suite of technology that is used to develop video games.

As in the broader tech industry, it’s been a year full of layoffs across gaming companies big and small. Last month, the Swedish gaming conglomerate Embracer Group AB shut down Illinois-based Volition, maker of the Saints Row games. Pokemon Go maker Niantic Inc. announced in June that it’s closing its Los Angeles game studio and canceling NBA and Marvel titles in a restructuring that eliminated 230 jobs, or about 25% of its staff.

Epic is one of the biggest privately held video game companies in the world. Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney owns the majority of shares while the Chinese conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd. has a 40% stake.

Layoffs at Epic

Earlier today Tim Sweeney sent the following email to Epic employees.

www.epicgames.com

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I wonder what caused that.

 

[JokerMM]

Almost 1000 people is crazy, that's worth 3 triple AAA studios put together
Wtf were they working on, Fortnite skins?

 

[Brock2621]

Ya'll aint buyin' enough V-Bucks......

 

[Ainem Enamas]

May God help them!

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Almost 1000 people is crazy, that's worth 3 triple AAA studios put together
Wtf were they working on, Fortnite skins?

GaaS mines require a lot of workforce. This + UE -> 5.6k people.

 

[FearlessBelgian]

No fortnite money anymore.

 

[justiceiro]

Fortnite got stale, finally?

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

So it begins, the great video game crash of our times...

 

[DrFigs]

probably shouldn't have messed w/ Apple

 

[Labadal]

Ya'll aint buyin' enough V-Bucks......

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/epic-is-raising-fortnite-v-bucks-prices-in-october-the-virtual-currency-will-be-more-expensive-in-a-number-of-countries-including-the-us.1661730/

 

[winjer]

All those billions from Fortnite are not enough...

 

[DrFigs]

fortnite just got a new milestone for peak concurrent players last month. i don't think that's the issue.
edit: sorry the stat i read was misleading. they only started to keep track of concurrent players a few months ago. so it means nothing :/

 

[Drizzlehell]

I'm guessing that they've fully automated the Fortnite skin sweatshops then.

 

[Wildebeest]

Baldur's Gate 3 really is making the whole industry no longer viable. All the doom sayers were right.

 

[Draugoth]

Epic Games Is Cutting About 900 Jobs, or 16% of Staff

www.bloomberg.com

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Six months' severance. Generous.

Media Molecule is only getting 1 month when I take over for Jim

 

[crackajack]

I had no idea they had so many people employed. Would be interesting what the percentages are for fortnite, unreal, egs and maybe a new game. Does epic offer much tech support? If yes, than that could also be easily a few hundred people.

 

[Dacvak]

Media Molecule is only getting 1 month when I take over for Jim

Okay, I want to hear more about this.

 

[DenchDeckard]

If fortnite isn't sustainable then God damn we are fucked!

 

[Bkdk]

UE5 prices are about to go up, there's a reason why unity went for the price hike announcement, they went too far but they absolutely knows epic is not doing well. I fully expect both game engines will announce massive price hike in the coming year.

 

[P:axMagellanic]

6 months seems pretty decent. And the medical thing I assume is probably the biggest worry for American employees?

I'm guessing Timmy boy is getting ready for another round of investment so is nuking headcount?

 

[FeralEcho]

Finally trimming the obligatory diversity hires i see

 

[blastprocessor]

A minor stutter.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Oof, that really sucks. At least those being laid off have a decent package to help them get on their feet.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

What are the roles / positions of these people? I hate when articles mention tech layoffs but don't bother to distinguish between laying off real developers, vs fresh junior devs, versus middle managers, project leads, "content creators", and down the list into a ton of roles that are barely work in the first place.

 

[Gamezone]

Maybe because they keep paying for free EGS giveaways on a store that's never improving and people don't use? How long can they keep doing this before pulling the plug? Their publishing tools was released a while back, yet most publishers don't bother. Meanwhile Steam is as healthy as ever, and is even getting Blizzard/Activision games.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

6 months seems pretty decent. And the medical thing I assume is probably the biggest worry for American employees?

I'm guessing Timmy boy is getting ready for another round of investment so is nuking headcount?

Seems you might be right on the money with this one. This is from two weeks ago:

 

[Gaiff]

If fortnite isn't sustainable then God damn we are fucked!

This means GAAS aren't sustainable.

 

[Neilg]

6 months severance is very generous, this isn't because they're hurting for revenue, it's a straightforward shift in strategy lay off.

 

[Draugoth]

 

[Roufianos]

900 people is 16% of the workforce? How on earth does Fortnite and UE warrant that many people?

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I guess their idea of metaverse inside fortnite to leverage various musicians did not work out.

 

[Sleepwalker]

They are also raising prices of MTX aren't they?

 

[Dacvak]

900 people is 16% of the workforce? How on earth does Fortnite and UE warrant that many people?

I can’t imagine how many of their employees have “full work weeks” that consist of doing like 2 hours of actual work each week. My buddy used to have a job like that.

The dream.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

900 people is 16% of the workforce? How on earth does Fortnite and UE warrant that many people?

The biggest game in the world that's always creating new content, plus the biggest gaming engine in the world? Yeah i'm shocked


(not)

 

[BbMajor7th]

Inevitable, really. Doesn't matter if you have one of the most successful games of all time, the shareholders will still demand year-on-year growth. If the player base is already maxed out then all you can do is start cutting costs and raising prices. Regular as clockwork.

 

[StereoVsn]

GaaS mines require a lot of workforce. This + UE -> 5.6k people.

You all do remember they make Unreal, right?

Anyway, that’s a lot of devs, thought Epics numbers were decent, that’s a big WTF.

 

[Spukc]

Time to make real games

 

[Barlow]

Layoffs at Epic

Earlier today Tim Sweeney sent the following email to Epic employees.

www.epicgames.com

 

[Bridges]

Really hope this didn't impact the remaining people at Harmonix. That studio has been through enough and now that they're mostly on Fortnite duty I'm worried about their longevity

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I'm guessing that they've fully automated the Fortnite skin sweatshops then.

AI baby.

 

[Roufianos]

The biggest game in the world that's always creating new content, plus the biggest gaming engine in the world? Yeah i'm shocked


(not)

Oh wow, sassy motherfucker over here.

Fortnite slightly tweaks its map every 3 months and launches a new BP, most weapons are swapped out but some are new. Doesn't seem like something needing thousands of people.

Guerilla Games made the Decima Engine while developing games with a headcount of 360 as of 2021. Even if Unreal Engine takes 5x the manpower, the numbers still don't make sense to me.

Probably why they're laying off a bunch of excess staff.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

Inevitable, really. Doesn't matter if you have one of the most successful games of all time, the shareholders will still demand year-on-year growth. If the player base is already maxed out then all you can do is start cutting costs and raising prices. Regular as clockwork.

or maybe a new IP?

 

[adamsapple]

 

[Gaiff]

 

[Party McHardy]

Ya'll aint buyin' enough V-Bucks......

This is actually the reason.

 

[drotahorror]

Lol

 

[ClosBSAS]

Well, looks like that eggs exclusivity money hat scheme finally worked for epic...lmao. get fucked Tim.

900 fucking people, Jesus. Hope they all land on their feet

 

[GnomeChimpsky]