In a tweet, and later an article, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier has confirmed Epic Games (Fortnite, Unreal Engine) is laying off 870 employees as well as separating itself from two previously purchased acquisitions. Here's all the details we know:
- 870 people are being laid off (~16% of workforce)
- Employees will receive six months of severance and health insurance, and accelerated stock vesting.
- It is also selling music store website Bandcamp
- It is spinning out SuperAwesome, a marketing company, to act independently.
In an e-mail to staff, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, made known the following:
- "For a while now, we've been spending way more money than we earn."
- No more layoffs are planned, although Epic is still hiring at the moment.
- Fortnite Creator profit margins are not as big as Fortnite was.
Quote From Jason Schreier NEWS: Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite and Unreal Engine, is laying off a whopping 16% of employees (or around 900 people), sources tell Bloomberg News. More to come
This morning, rumors were flying as Epic disabled Slack for employees ahead of the news. Laid-off Epic employees will receive six months severance and health benefits. All-hands meeting happening shortly. Story being updated as I learn more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-28/epic-games-is-cutting-about-900-jobs-or-16-of-staff
Epic is also divesting from two previous acquisitions, sources say. It is selling music site Bandcamp to the marketer Songtradr and spinning out marketing company SuperAwesome to operate independently.
MORE: Epic boss Tim Sweeney says in email to staff: - "For a while now, we've been spending way more money than we earn" - Fortnite Creator profit margins not as big as Fortnite was - 870 jobs eliminated, but Epic is still hiring - No more layoffs planned
Comments
Least the laid off employees got a 6 month severance package. Don't recall Blizzard ever doing such nice things.
I guess we won't be getting free games for too long. Or they will completely switch to obscure indie games which I'm actually in favor of
Epic has already been recycling games every now and then - I go to pick up a free game and it turns out I already own it, and I definitely didn't buy it.
There's actually a pretty cool excel photo that came out... I think during the Epic vs. Apple trial? Not sure. Anyway, it shows how much Epic has paid for a bunch of the games they gave for free: https://www.thefpsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/epic-games-store-free-games-cost-breakdown-2019.jpg
If they move to less big-name games, you shouldn't expect stuff like Subnautica to show up for free outside some Christmas event. The excel is actually pretty interesting to look at. Entitlements shows how many people claimed the game for free, and the EPIC UA Cost column shows if how much they paid the developer (Buyout price) was a good investment. For Celeste, for example, they overpaid, as the UA cost is really high. At least, that's what I think it means :D
It's been 4 years since then. How are they faring compared to current Steam?
Perhaps to really compete with Steam, they need the Workshop as well as the chat doodads and Community art/screenshot saving etc.
Oh yeah, and those gamified sales 'events'.
Feature-wise, yeah, they really haven't done much. It took until last year to finally implement achievements. A large amount of games still aren't supported (or the devs didn't add whatever "epic achievement plug-in" they need to add so their game's achievements can be tracks through EGS).
There's a case to be made that Steam has perhaps a few too many features, or rather too many enabled by default and visible, leading to cluttered interfaces for most game pages, but more is always preferred to less.