Epic Games laying off 16% of workforce (~900)

[the-pi-guy]

NEWS: Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite and Unreal Engine, is laying off a whopping 16% of employees (or around 900 people), sources tell Bloomberg News. More to come

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 28, 2023

[Legend]

Ouch. Need to know which divisions since I thought Fortnite was still doing good.

[kitler53]

holy sheet.   buy them now playstation.  

[the-pi-guy]

This morning, rumors were flying as Epic disabled Slack for employees ahead of the news. Laid-off Epic employees will receive six months severance and health benefits. All-hands meeting happening shortly. Story being updated as I learn more: https://t.co/BK1oVRgCba

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 28, 2023

[the-pi-guy]

Epic is also divesting from two previous acquisitions, sources say. It is selling music site Bandcamp to the marketer Songtradr and spinning out marketing company SuperAwesome to operate independently.

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 28, 2023

[the-pi-guy]

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 plannedhttps://t.co/BK1oVRgCba

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 28, 2023

[the-pi-guy]

Official Announcement

For a while now, we've been spending way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic and growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators. I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic.

While Fortnite is starting to grow again, the growth is driven primarily by creator content with significant revenue sharing, and this is a lower margin business than we had when Fortnite Battle Royale took off and began funding our expansion. Success with the creator ecosystem is a great achievement, but it means a major structural change to our economics.

What does this mean for Epic's priorities?

We are still focused on shipping our must succeed initiatives: the next Fortnite Season and Fortnite Chapter 5, Del Mar, Sparks, and Juno. Their schedules remain in place.
We aren't cutting any core businesses, and are continuing to invest in games with Fortnite first-party development, the Fortnite creator ecosystem and economy, Rocket League and Fall Guys; and services for developers including Unreal Engine for games and enterprise, Epic Games Store, Epic Games Publishing, Epic Online Services, Kids Web Services, MetaHuman, Twin Motion, Quixel Mega Scans, Capturing Reality, ArtStation, Sketchfab and Fab.
We are divesting from Bandcamp and spinning off most of SuperAwesome.
We'll have a long company meeting later in October to talk about all of our efforts and priorities.

[kitler53]

we're barreling towards a major recession and gaming apparently is hurting.   i think we're only a few short years from the entire industry consolidating into basically ~5-6 players.  MS must be loving this...

[the-pi-guy]

I'm also seeing that Blizzard let some people go, too.

— Derek Strickland (@DeekeTweak) September 28, 2023

Environment Artist at Naughty Dog:

Welp, I got hit with that surprise Lay Off today. Back to being poor.???? pic.twitter.com/yC50gcslDC

— Rico (@grico316) September 28, 2023

Layoffs across Epic Games, Ubisoft, Sega, Blizzard, SIE this week...

[Legend]

Not good.

[BananaKing]

This industry is brutal. Job security is nothing but a dream in it.

[nnodley]

This industry is brutal. Job security is nothing but a dream in it.

Yeah sometimes it always makes me question whether I want to potentially always deal with the worry of being laid off or whatever.

[BananaKing]

Yeah sometimes it always makes me question whether I want to potentially always deal with the worry of being laid off or whatever.

And it's not like pay is fantastic where it's worth the risk.

[nnodley]

And it's not like pay is fantastic where it's worth the risk.

Sometimes you can get some good pay, but most of the time its not the best especially if you get stuck somewhere that has a ton of crunch or extra hours that don't make it worth your time.  

And the barrier to getting a position is getting so much harder lately.  I can't tell you how many times I have seen positions listed as entry level but require 1 or 2 shipped titles and minimum 2 years game industry experience.  It's fudgy ludicrous. I've probably done 30 to 40 apps in the past few months or so and not a single one has gotten me anywhere besides this digital marketing/VR studio that i'm contracting for. I literally got lucky with this contract position.

[BananaKing]

Sometimes you can get some good pay, but most of the time its not the best especially if you get stuck somewhere that has a ton of crunch or extra hours that don't make it worth your time.  

And the barrier to getting a position is getting so much harder lately.  I can't tell you how many times I have seen positions listed as entry level but require 1 or 2 shipped titles and minimum 2 years game industry experience.  It's fudgy ludicrous. I've probably done 30 to 40 apps in the past few months or so and not a single one has gotten me anywhere besides this digital marketing/VR studio that i'm contracting for. I literally got lucky with this contract position.

Haha man man companies are hilarious these days. "entry level" is starting to mean somebody with 5 years experience,  payed as an intern.

I think you might be better off with app development, I mean I've seen some of your work and it's pretty good, so I do really wish you the best. Personally I'm trying to get out of this whole 3D industry forever.