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News Epic Games is laying off 16% of it's workforce

As usual, this sucks immensely for all the employees, I hope whoever's affected is able to find work but it's happening so much all over the industry that it must be very anxiety-inducing for them.

All because companies can't live without infinite growth.
 
What a weird month in gaming, as usual hoping those laid off can land on their feet. It feels like a turning point is coming for a few bigger Western game studios over the next 2 years.
 
900 people is wild, this sucks.

It's bitter consolation, but six months severance seems pretty good at least:


I got jack back when I got laid off.
 
More proof that the way these companies have done things isn't sustainable.

May the affected land on their feet ASAP.
 
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At the very least they're getting severance, though depending on your situation 6 months might not be all that much. Makes me wonder what's going on though, that is a huge portion of their employees.
 
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Donald Mustard (chief creative officer at Epic Games/ head of Fortnite ) recently mysteriously announced that he will be “retiring” at a ripe old age of 47 later this month. I guess he was just getting ahead of everyone else.
 
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Yay end of the fiscal quarter ☹️

6 month severance is very generous right now. Hope everyone impacted lands on their feet
 
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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
Click to expand...
 
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Fortnite was not going to rake in money at the same rate perpetually. There will always be the hardcore whales, but a lot of people just eventually move on.

I'm not even sure what the last big, publicized update to Fortnite was that wasn't just a licensed collaboration skin.

All that being said, if this is the bursting of the Fortnite bubble, Epic should have seen it coming and done more to protect their employees. I hope those affected are able to land on their feet.
 
Wonder which is bigger, the salaries for those 900 people or the 9 highest-paid Epic execs.

Infuriating how the consequences of poor decision-making and planning never seem to fall on the C-suite that made those calls in the first place.
 
Fuck Tim Sweeney for the lay offs.

And fuck him for ruining this once-great software house and Unreal (the game).
 
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I wonder if the covid effect on profits of eletronic companies created a bubble.

Now that the world is coming back to normal, as such thing exists, reality is charging its price.
 
Six months severance is good, but goddamn. Almost a fifth of your workforce needs to find new jobs because you vastly overestimated how well Fortnite would continue to take in money.
 
Hailinel said:
Fortnite was not going to rake in money at the same rate perpetually. There will always be the hardcore whales, but a lot of people just eventually move on.

I'm not even sure what the last big, publicized update to Fortnite was that wasn't just a licensed collaboration skin.

All that being said, if this is the bursting of the Fortnite bubble, Epic should have seen it coming and done more to protect their employees. I hope those affected are able to land on their feet.
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This isn't a consequence of Fortnite slowing down - this is a consequence of Epic Games investing lots of money into their games store, lawsuits, acquisitions, and Sweeny's other money burning endeavors. I think it's happening now primarily because the increased interest rates and global economic decline are necessitating more fiscal responsibility.
 
InsaneZero said:
This isn't a consequence of Fortnite slowing down - this is a consequence of Epic Games investing lots of money into their games store, lawsuits, acquisitions, and Sweeny's other money burning endeavors. I think it's happening now primarily because the increased interest rates and global economic decline are necessitating more fiscal responsibility.
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I would like to also add that many companies (the one I work for included) got used the covid money that came in and began budgeting and forecasting based on those unrealistic, unsustainable numbers. They went on a hiring spree and found themselves having far more people than needed.
 
LonkFromPA said:
I would like to also add that many companies (the one I work for included) got used the covid money that came in and began budgeting and forecasting based on those unrealistic, unsustainable numbers. They went on a hiring spree and found themselves having far more people than needed.
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I think that COVID amplified and accelerated the problem of capital being recklessly utilized, but wasn't the cause for it. There was a lot of money being invested into every aspect of the gaming industry even before the pandemic hit, and I would contribute that to the low interest rates that facilitated unsustainable levels of borrowing.
 
Hailinel said:
Among the layoffs were the entire Mediatonic staff (the Fall Guys creators).

Click to expand...

With them divesting Bandcamp I’m really wondering how Harmonix fared

InsaneZero said:
I think that COVID amplified the problem of capital being recklessly utilized, but wasn't the cause for it. There was a lot of money being invested into every aspect of the gaming industry even before the pandemic hit, and I would contribute that to the low interest rates that facilitated unsustainable levels of borrowing.
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Tech sector in generally has been rocked hard by the interest rate hikes. Who knew investors and lenders would start to pull in their money on companies that have struggled to turn profits in a decade?
 
And how many other companies have been screwing themselves over trying to make the next Fortnite?!?
 
If there is one thing we have learned about everything that is happening, it's that Nintendo has been very smart with their overall game development process. They stayed out of the graphics/power race, focused on gameplay first and has been making titles that sell gangbusters at a fraction of some of these AAA development costs. It isn't every day that you have a hardware manufacturer sell nearly 500M units of first party software in the span of 7 years and again, at a fraction of the development cost.
 
smoothies said:
And how many other companies have been screwing themselves over trying to make the next Fortnite?!?
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The majority of these companies chasing the next big Fortnite are going to fail miserably. And if they succeed, it will be temporary. You cannot be a one trick pony and expect that people will never get tired of the same show.
 
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Lugia667 said:
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I'd like to point out that Tim Sweeny's reasoning for the layoffs only mention Fortnite's revenue being insufficient but completely leaves out any of the non-Fortnite related expenses that I mentioned in my earlier post. Those expenses had to be significant since the majority of the layoffs are explicitly stated to be from outside "core development", but he deftly avoids bringing attention to the costly decisions that he is responsible for.

Absolutely trash CEO.
 
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Buying studios seems to be about removing competition and is unsustainable.

Sucks for the salaried staff of these studios who got bought out, but all the founders and owners have cashed out when they sold up so I won't shed a tear for those people.

This is why companies aren't your friends and promises are worthless unless it is a legally enforceable contract
 
Remember the Unity situation and how people were saying nothing like that could ever happen to Unreal because Epic has Fortnite money? ...
 
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Unity publicly shits the bed, alienates their developer base and drives them to look for alternative engine providers with which to make games.

Unreal: "What if, instead of capitalizing on this once in a lifetime opportunity, we shit the bed at the same time as Unity and fire a bunch of our own staff?"
 
Being less facetious:

As well as Fortnite, Epic have Unreal Engine, which is far as away the biggest engine in the AAA industry. They get revenue from every big game that uses their engine.

If you can't make money while not only having the biggest shooter in the world, but also the biggest game engine in the world, then I'm sorry but you fucking suck at running a company.
 
JazzPotatoes said:
Unity publicly shits the bed, alienates their developer base and drives them to look for alternative engine providers with which to make games.

Unreal: "What if, instead of capitalizing on this once in a lifetime opportunity, we shit the bed at the same time as Unity and fire a bunch of our own staff?"
Click to expand...
I predict that we'll be seeing companies pulling similar shit like this that the money faucet that they've been relying on to bail them out of unsustainable business practices has been turned off.
 
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JazzPotatoes said:
Being less facetious:

As well as Fortnite, Epic have Unreal Engine, which is far as away the biggest engine in the AAA industry. They get revenue from every big game that uses their engine.

If you can't make money while not only having the biggest shooter in the world, but also the biggest game engine in the world, then I'm sorry but you fucking suck at running a company.
Click to expand...
don't give them any ideas, they might do what unity did
 
The year is 2028. An indie developer publishes a complex 3D action-puzzle-platformer. When asked what engine they used, they reply that it is the world's most customized Ren'py Engine.
 
Tim Sweeney has always seemed like a wolf in sheep's clothing. Dude is always playing the victim or righteous avenger fighting for the little guy while simultaneously shitting his way through every business decision he makes.
 
Company make (record) profit
CEOs and executives make tons of money from salary, packages, bonuses, etc. because... check note leading the company is hard, they deserve the bonus.

Company's profit/revenue got dipped
Not the CEO, or executives' fault at all, it must be because those workers want higher pay and work less, we must lay off everyone else before we cut our salary and bonuses.

I hate, hate these so much... if you got bonuses and credits for leading the company when the profit goes up then you should also take the claim if it goes down...
You can't pick and choose when you should take credits and when you won't...
 
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