Epic has become the latest studio to lay off employees, and a truly staggering number of workers are losing their jobs owing to a downturn in Fortnite engagement that apparently began last year.
In a new blog post, Epic's Tim Sweeney confirms that the company is "laying off over 1000 Epic employees". Sweeney says that Epic is currently "spending significantly more than [it's] making" due to the aforementioned Fortnite dip, necessitating "major cuts to keep the company funded".
As well as the layoffs, Epic will also be making "$500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles" in order to put the company in "a more stable place", Sweeney says.
Sweeney goes on to say that while some of Epic's challenges are "industry-wide", including "slower growth, weaker spending, and tougher cost economics", some, like "challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic with every season", are unique to the studio.
One thing that isn't to blame for the layoffs, however, is generative AI. Sweeney says that Epic "wants to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as [it] can".
News of these layoffs follows the announcement that Epic is hiking Fortnite's V-Bucks prices, apparently...
