Fortnite maker Epic Games announced layoffs affecting nearly 1,000 people, just a day after also announcing a V-bucks price increase in the multiplayer game. The layoffs affected 870 employees across Epic’s studios, including Psyonix and Fall Guys-maker Mediatonic, and additional employees at Bandcamp and SuperAwesome, two companies Epic purchased in 2022 and 2020, respectively.
“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,” Sweeney said in a statement. “I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic.”
Epic is also selling off music platform Bandcamp and will turn SuperAwesome into an independent company. Sweeney pointed to Epic’s recent revenue sharing plan with content creators as a factor in Fortnite’s supposed decline.
“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.”
The news came less than a day after Epic quietly announced it would raise Fortnite V-bucks prices in the U.S. and other countries beginning Oct. 27, 2023.
- 1,000 V-Bucks – $7.99 to $8.99
- 2,800 V-Bucks – $19.99 to $22.99
- 5,000 V-Bucks – $31.99 to $36.99
- 13,5000 V-Bucks – $79.99 to $89.99
Sweeney didn’t say whether Epic would reverse or change its revenue sharing program, which offers payouts to influential creators who build Fortnite islands and attract more players to the game.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
