Fortnite is one of the biggest games in the world, so it isn’t overly surprising to see Epic Games make adjustments to how the title is run as the game nears its tenth birthday. Maintaining a massive multiplatform operation filled with big IP collaborations isn’t cheap or easy, and that knowledge lead to some shocking news yesterday, 24th March, when over 1,000 positions were cut at the developer.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney pointed to a “downturn” in engagement (even if the game continues to a operate as a massive hit drawing in numbers that many publishers and developers would eye with envy). Whether or not you think Fortnite is ‘too big to fail’, or an unsustatinable monolith, data from last year pointed to healthy on-going results for Epic games and its premiere battle royal.
It’s hard to get the full picture of the situation less than 24 hours after the terrible news shook the entire games industry, but it’s clear Epic Games isn’t as confident about its money-maker as it was a few years ago. After laying off over 1,000 developers, Sweeney’s loose message to staff demanded the same gargantuan efforts from the employees that remain untouched by the recent cuts (via IGN): to simply “build awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events” while also preparing to transition to Unreal Engine 6. No biggie, then.
Sweeney promises more details about what’s next for Epic “towards the end of the year,” yet Fortnite devs are now left cleaning the mess after a disaster and preparing to take on absurd amounts of work with a smaller headcount: “Our teams will have to pick up the pieces and try to keep moving forward… but we cannot even fully understand what kind of impacts this will have on the game for the rest of the year and likely beyond,” gameplay producer Robby Williams said on social media.
“I’ll continue to do my best to keep making the best game for you… and I’m confident that my peers feel the same, but please be patient with us as we navigate this tough time and do our best in spite of these truly gut-wrenching losses,” he added. Meanwhile, veteran employees like design director Christopher Pope, principal engineer Evan Kinney, and lead writer Nik Blahunka, among many others, announced they were impacted by the mass layoffs. The impact of this major shake-up can’t be understated, and it leaves the future of the game – and Epic, more generally – looking very uncertain.
