With a game as successful as Fortnite and the Unreal Engine behind them, reading the headline “Epic Games is Letting Go of over 800 Staff Members” is not something you’d readily expect to read, but it’s true.
CEO Tim Sweeney sent an open letter to the employees of Epic explaining why this was happening and the steps forward that Epic was going to take.
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.
Sweeney mentions that Epic has been running at a loss for quite a while now, and, unfortunately, laying off staff and divesting some of their products is the only way to bring the company back on track. The company has attempted to stabilise its finances by halting the hiring of new staff members and cutting down budgets on marketing and events, but it wasn’t enough to bring them out of the rut.
Around 830 staff members equate to 16% of the company’s total staff complement, which is quite a large portion of the company to let go of all at once. Two-thirds of the staff that is leaving Epic comes from outside their core business. Sweeney is also sure that a layoff of this size will be enough and that no other layoffs will need to occur afterwards.
Epic will be offering a severance package that will include six months of base pay and health care to employees who reside in the US, Canada or Brazil.
Along with letting go of staff, Epic is also divesting in Bandcamp, an online music platform. Bandcamp has been acquired by Songtradr, who have officially posted about the acquisition and their plans with the music platform.
Sweeney explains that Epic remains focused on its core businesses, Fortnite and Unreal Engine, and they will continue to drive work that pushes them deeper into the metaverse.
Perhaps other outside influences, like competing game development companies charging their users more, will also assist in bringing Epic and Unreal Engine back into the green.