‘Fortnite’ maker Epic Games lays off 1,000 staff

Epic Games, the developer of the favored online game “Fortnite,” is shedding greater than 1,000 staff and chopping $500 million in prices.

Chief Executive Tim Sweeney introduced the cuts Tuesday morning in a message to staff. He mentioned it has nothing to do with synthetic intelligence and as an alternative pointed to what he mentioned was a scarcity of “Fortnite” engagement final yr.

“Despite Fortnite remaining one of the most successful games in the world, we’ve had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic with every season,” Sweeney mentioned in a press release.

The firm’s flagship sport was first launched in 2017. Since then, it’s been a key a part of web tradition — the place character-specific dances grew to become widespread traits and main musicians, resembling Travis Scott and Ariana Grande, have hosted concert events within the digital realm.

But Epic has been sluggish to optimize the pc sport for cell play. A “Fortnite” app was first launched in 2018 however quickly eliminated as a result of a authorized battle towards Apple and Google over app retailer practices. Sweeney mentioned the corporate remains to be within the “early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones.”

Many of Epic’s woes additionally come from industrywide challenges resembling “slower growth, weaker spending, and tougher cost economics,” Sweeney wrote. And Epic isn’t the one one struggling. In latest years, gaming firms together with Electronic Arts and Microsoft’s Xbox division have all lower down their workforces.

This yr, the State of the Game Industry Report from the Game Developers Conference discovered that roughly one-third of U.S. online game business staff have been laid off within the final two years.

Epic Games was based in 1991 and is headquartered in Cary, N.C. It has dozens of workplaces around the globe, together with in Los Angeles. Beyond “Fortnite,” the corporate is called a frontrunner in 3D engine know-how and interactive leisure.

Over the years, Epic Games has steadily constructed itself into a serious Hollywood participant. Its 3D creation device, the Unreal Engine, has been used to supply visible results and digital worlds for reveals together with Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm’s “The Mandalorian” and HBO’s “Westworld.”

In 2024, Disney inked a take care of Epic Games to create a video games and leisure universe with the corporate’s manufacturers, together with Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar. Disney invested $1.5 billion in Epic Games for a minority stake within the firm. Newly minted Disney Chief Executive Josh D’Amaro managed the collaboration with Epic Games in his earlier function as parks chief to create a Disney world inside the well-liked “Fortnite” sport.

Looking forward, Sweeney plans to focus the corporate on constructing “awesome Fortnite experiences” with recent content material and proceed to speed up its developer instruments, such because the Unreal Engine.