Epic Games lays off 1,000 employees, citing dip in 'Fortnite' popularity

Epic Games, the developer of the fashionable video crippled “Fortnite,” is laying disconnected much than 1,000 employees and cutting $500 cardinal successful costs.

Chief Executive Tim Sweeney announced the cuts Tuesday greeting successful a connection to employees. He said it has thing to bash with AI and alternatively pointed to what helium said was a deficiency of “Fortnite” engagement past year.

“Despite Fortnite remaining 1 of the astir palmy games successful the world, we’ve had challenges delivering accordant Fortnite magic with each season,” said Sweeney successful a statement.

The company’s flagship crippled was archetypal released successful 2017. Since then, it’s been a cardinal portion of net civilization — wherever character-specific dances became wide trends and large musicians, similar Travis Scott and Ariana Grande, person hosted concerts successful the virtual realm.

But Epic has been dilatory to optimize the machine crippled for mobile play. A “Fortnite” app was archetypal introduced successful 2018, but soon removed owed to a ineligible conflict against Apple and Google implicit app store practices. Sweeney said the institution is inactive successful the “early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones.”

Many of Epic’s woes besides travel from industry-wide challenges, similar “slower growth, weaker spending, and tougher outgo economics,” Sweeney wrote. And Epic isn’t the lone 1 suffering. In caller years, gaming companies similar Electronic Arts and Microsoft’s Xbox part person each chopped down their workforces.

Earlier this year, the State of the Game Industry Report from the Game Developers Conference recovered astir one-third of U.S. video crippled manufacture workers were laid disconnected successful the past 2 years.

Epic Games was founded successful 1991 and is headquartered successful Cary, North Carolina. It has dozens of offices astir the world, including successful Los Angeles. Beyond “Fortnite,” the institution is known arsenic a person successful 3D motor exertion and interactive entertainment.

Over the years, Epic Games has steadily built itself into a large Hollywood player. Its 3D instauration tool, the Unreal Engine, has been utilized to nutrient ocular effects and virtual worlds for shows similar Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm’s “The Mandalorian” and HBO’s “Westworld.”

In 2024, Disney inked a woody with Epic Games to make a games and amusement beingness with the company’s brands, including Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar. Disney invested $1.5 cardinal successful Epic Games for a number involvement successful the company. Newly minted Disney Chief Executive Josh D’Amaro managed the collaboration with Epic Games successful his erstwhile relation arsenic parks main to make a Disney satellite wrong the fashionable “Fortnite” game.

Looking ahead, Sweeney plans to absorption the institution connected gathering “awesome Fortnite experiences” with caller contented and proceed to accelerate its developer tools similar the Unreal Engine.