On 24th March, Fortnite developer Epic Games announced mass layoffs that affected over 1,000 workers, including key veterans behind the hit online game.
A few days later, it was revealed that Mike Prinke, a programmer with seven years of experience a the company, was among the cuts. Prinke has terminal brain cancer, so his wife Jenni Griffin explained via Facebook the dire situation their family was left in: “As I face the reality of losing my husband… I’m also facing the reality of what type of funeral/burial I can afford. How I will keep a roof over our heads. How I will protect our son and the life we built together. What will happen to our dogs.” The full post is a heart-wrenching read, but after taking off on socials, it reached CEO Tim Sweeney:
According to his 29th March answer, Epic is now in the process of “solving the insurance” for Prinke and his family. He also reminded everyone there’s a “high confidentiality around medical information” that isn’t factored in during layoffs. The X/Twitter post arrived after fans criticized Epic’s leadership for making staff pay the price of decisions above their pay grades.
As underlined by IGN’s report, the mass layoffs hit the company’s workforce after a “downturn in interest for Fortnite” that started last year as the game’s operating costs rise. Mind you, the game was reportedly “the biggest in the world on many fronts” by late 2025, yet even that degree of success doesn’t guarantee stability these days as you sadly know.
Right after the layoffs, Sweeney also took to X/Twitter to tell potential employers about the “quality folks” that he’d just fired. Meanwhile, the remaining developers have been left picking up the pieces and trying to deliver on expectations which probably aren’t being lowered.
