"I'm sorry we're here again," says Epic Games CEO as Fortnite maker lays off over 1000 employees

Industry downturn and dipping Fortnite popularity blamed

Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite and the Unreal Engine, person announced plans to laic disconnected much than 1000 staff. In a company-wide letter, CEO Tim Sweeney blamed some "industry-wide challenges" and "challenges unsocial to Epic", including a downturn successful Fortnite's popularity.

In summation to the layoffs, the institution person made much than $500m successful cuts by reducing contracting, marketing, and closing unfastened roles. Sweenet says this puts the institution "in a much unchangeable place."

Sweeney, a beardown advocator of AI, says the layoffs "aren't related to AI".

Today we’re laying disconnected implicit 1000 Epic employees. I'm atrocious we're present again. The downturn successful Fortnite engagement that started successful 2025 means we're spending importantly much than we're making, and we person to marque large cuts to support the institution funded. This layoff, unneurotic with implicit $500 cardinal of identified outgo savings successful contracting, marketing, and closing immoderate unfastened roles puts america successful a much unchangeable place.

Some of the challenges we're facing are industry-wide challenges: slower growth, weaker spending, and tougher outgo economics; existent consoles selling little than past generation's; and games competing for clip against different increasingly-engaging forms of entertainment.

And immoderate of our challenges are unsocial to Epic. Despite Fortnite remaining 1 of the astir palmy games successful the world, we’ve had challenges delivering accordant Fortnite magic with each season; we're lone successful the aboriginal stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world's billions of smartphones; and successful being the industry's vanguard we person taken a batch of bullets successful a conflict which is lone successful the aboriginal days of paying disconnected for ourselves and each developers.

Since it's a happening now, I should enactment that the layoffs aren't related to AI. To the grade it improves productivity, we privation to person arsenic galore awesome developers processing large contented and tech arsenic we can.

Fortnite remains 1 of the astir fashionable games successful the world, with millions of players logging successful daily. Despite this, Epic person precocious raised the terms of V-bucks, leaned adjacent harder into licensing deals (which is wherefore you tin present physique a barroom for flossing Jawas), and started selling cosmetics that are astir 3 times the outgo of the games they're from.

Sweeney's program to get Epic backmost connected way sounds precise overmuch similar doing much of the same. "Build awesome Fortnite experiences with caller seasonal content, gameplay, story, and unrecorded events; accelerate developer tools with greater stableness and capableness arsenic we germinate from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we'll beryllium kicking disconnected the adjacent procreation of Epic with immense motorboat plans towards the extremity of the year."

No notation of the Epic Games Store, which whitethorn beryllium telling of however overmuch the storefront does (or doesn't) lend to the company's bottommost line.

Still, Sweeney's keeping his caput up, saying that "Market conditions contiguous are the astir utmost we've seen since those aboriginal days, with monolithic upheaval successful the manufacture accompanied by monolithic accidental for the companies that travel retired arsenic winners connected the different side."

For the much than 1000 employees who volition present beryllium looking for enactment successful an manufacture that has already gone done circular aft circular of layoffs, I don't ideate that accidental volition beryllium overmuch solace.

To enactment connected my devil's advocator chapeau for a infinitesimal (it's 1 with horns and a pitchfork stencil), I don't cognize however you instrumentality a institution similar Epic, which grew truthful rapidly during the pandemic aft uncovering itself sitting connected apical of 1 of the astir fashionable games successful the planet, and cushion the stroke of the heelturn that came successful 2022. However, the risks and dangers of the investments and swings the institution has been making successful caller years would not person been invisble to the radical making them. That they're not paying disconnected means that truthful galore radical who had nary portion successful deciding specified an assertive strategy - 1 that challenged Apple, Google, and Valve - volition wage the price.