Epic Games Laying Off 1,000+ Workers, Swears AI Is To not Blame

Despite the huge reputation of Fortnite, Epic Games says it’s now spending extra money than it’s bringing in.

As a consequence, the corporate introduced Tuesday that it’s shedding greater than 1,000 staff, based on a note despatched to workers and revealed on-line by founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. Epic additionally recognized greater than $500 million in value financial savings throughout contracting, advertising and marketing, and unfilled roles that it says will put the corporate in a extra “stable place.”

In the notice, Sweeney factors to a slowdown in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025, together with broader business challenges as culprits for the layoffs. These challenges embody slower development, weaker shopper spending, more durable economics, and elevated competitors from different types of leisure. He additionally notes that present recreation console gross sales are trailing the earlier technology.

Sweeney suggests Epic’s long-running authorized battles with Apple and Google over cell app retailer insurance policies have additionally taken a toll. Fortnite was faraway from each corporations’ cell app shops for a number of years after Epic launched its personal third-party fee system. The recreation returned to Apple’s App Store in 2025 and to the Google Play Store earlier this month.

Sweeney wrote within the notice the corporate remains to be “only in the early stages of returning to mobile.” He added, that the corporate has “taken a lot of bullets in a battle which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers.”

One factor Sweeney doesn’t blame is AI.

“Since it’s a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren’t related to AI,” Sweeney wrote. “To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can.”

That stance contrasts with different tech corporations which might be pouring billions into AI whereas slicing workers and aiming to function with smaller, extra “agile” groups. Amazon, Vimeo, Pinterest, and Block have all introduced layoffs earlier this 12 months. Block CEO Jack Dorsey has even gone so far as suggesting that AI is able to changing a major share of his firm’s workforce.

Looking forward, Sweeney stated Epic plans to concentrate on constructing “awesome Fortnite experiences build awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events.”

Fortnite, which began as a battle royale recreation, has developed right into a broader social platform that some have described as a real metaverse, with user-generated content material, model tie-ins, and reside occasions like concerts.

But whilst Epic is refocusing its efforts to enhance Fortnite, it’s scaling again some points of the sport.

In a post on X, the corporate stated it’s shutting down a number of Fortnite modes, together with Rocket Racing, Ballistic, and Festival Battle Stage. The transfer comes as Meta has gone backwards and forwards on whether or not to close down its digital actuality social platform Horizon Worlds.

“We’ve built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base,” the put up reads.