Epic Games cuts around 830 jobs

theverge.com:

By Ash Parrish, a reporter who has covered the business, culture, and communities of video games for seven years. Previously, she worked at Kotaku.

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Bloomberg reports that Fortnite developer Epic Games is expected to lay off 16 percent of its workforce.

In a statement from Tim Sweeney, Epic has confirmed the layoffs will impact around 830 employees. He wrote that the company intends to divest from Bandcamp — an independent music storefront company Epic acquired just last year — and spin off SuperAwesome, a “kid-tech” company that specializes in creating safe online experiences for kids. He also explains that the layoffs are a result of the company “spending way more money than we earn.” Notably, Sweeney does not apologize to his employees for making the business decisions that have resulted in the disruption of over 800 lives, saying only that his “optimism” that such spending would not result in layoffs was “unrealistic.”

There were rumors that Epic was expected to implement layoffs this year. According to Verge reporter Alex Heath, the company was seeking investment and speculated layoffs as a means to reduce expenses might make it easier to raise funds.

It’s been a rough few months for the video game industry. After a spate of high-profile acquisitions, including buying The Lord of the Rings IP rights, Embracer Group canceled multiple projects, shuttered an entire studio, and may sell off another after a $2 billion investment deal fell through. Activision Blizzard has recently laid off employees in its Hearthstone division after laying off employees in its esports department earlier this year.

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