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The massive Epic Games layoffs have affected the lives of many people. The Fortnite creator laid off over 800 workers, which is around 16% of the workforce. Due to this, many gamers around the world are worried about the future of the video game.
After laying off numerous employees, Tim Sweeney, the company’s founder and CEO, sent an email about the situation. The 52-year-old businessman clarified why the layoffs happened and even shed some light on the future of Fortnite.
Here’s all you need to know about it.
Fortnite’s future is safe and shouldn’t be drastically affected by Epic Games layoffs
Fortnite recently turned six and is still one of the most popular video games in the world. With millions of daily active players, Epic Games’ title keeps pushing forward and breaking records. With Fortnite Chapter 5 reportedly around the corner, we expect the game to become even more popular.
Many players started worrying about Fortnite’s future after Epic Games layoffs. However, it doesn’t seem that the game will be drastically affected by the recent events.
Tim Sweeney revealed that the game is growing again, but this time, it’s driven by content creators and Creative maps. Due to the revenue-sharing program, this type of business results in a much lower margin in comparison to Fortnite Battle Royale. After all, the company shares 40% of its Item Shop net revenue with map creators.
Epic Games’ CEO clarified that the latest layoffs will not affect core lines of business. Sweeney also revealed that two-thirds of the layoffs were in teams outside of core development. This means that fewer than 300 people who worked on core products were laid off.
It’s important to note that Epic has many other products besides Fortnite. The company owns Fall Guys, Rocket League, and many other popular video games. On top of that, Unreal Engine is used by many game developers, and the Epic Games Store has also become more popular over the past few years.
“We’re cutting costs without breaking development or our core lines of businesses so we can continue to focus on our ambitious plans. About two-thirds of the layoffs were in teams outside of core development Some of our products and initiatives will land on schedule, and some may not ship when planned because they are under-resourced for the time being. We’re ok with the schedule tradeoff if it means holding on to our ability to achieve our goals, get to the other side of profitability and become a leading meta verse company.”
Tim Sweeney
While the future of Fortnite may not be affected by the Epic Games layoffs, many lives will certainly be. Fortunately, the company offered its laid-off employees a severance package that included six months of base pay and a couple of benefits.
