Epic Games Games Cuts Almost 900 Jobs In Video Game Industry's Latest Mass Layoff
«For a while now, we've been spending way more money than we earn.»
By Eddie Makuch on
Epic Games is the latest major game studio to enact a round of layoffs. The same day that Sega announced major cuts at Creative Assembly, Epic Games has confirmed it's laying off about 16% of its workforce, which amounts to around 870 people. Additionally, Epic is divesting the audio platform Bandcamp and spinning off «most» of its SuperAwesome team.
250 are leaving via Epic's divestures of Bandcamp and SuperAwesome. Epic confirmed these changes after announcing V-Bucks price increases.
«For a while now, we've been spending way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic and growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators. I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic,» CEO and founder Tim Sweeney said in a memo to staff and shared on Epic's website.
«While Fortnite is starting to grow again, the growth is driven primarily by creator content with significant revenue sharing, and this is a lower margin business than we had when Fortnite Battle Royale took off and began funding our expansion,» he added. «Success with the creator ecosystem is a great achievement, but it means a major structural change to our economics.»
About two-thirds of the job cuts came from teams outside of «core development,» Sweeney said. «Some of our products and initiatives will land on schedule, and some may not ship when planned because they are under-resourced for the time being,» he said.
Sweeney went on to say that efforts have been made to reduce costs, including a «net zero hiring» freeze and cutting spending on marketing and events.
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