'We're Spending Significantly More than We're Making': Fortnite Publisher Epic Games Lays Off Over 1,000 Staff

Or - crazy suggestion - make games again instead of "game." Fortnite is past its prime; give me a new, visceral Unreal Tournament.

Fortnite may not be falling off just yet, but at some point I think people will want a different experience.

When they post record profits enriching the shareholders, I'm sure the laid off employees will see it all as worth it.

It's absolutely crazy how long this game has survived and more so being profitable...

@ElkinFencer10

YES!
Unreal Tournament is much needed, at least by me and some friend of mine.

So gross man. Nothing and no one is safe. Like a lot of folks keep saying - make a bad game - laid off. Make a worldwide best seller - laid off. 1 billion users? It should've been 2 billion - laid off.

I will say that, at least in Canada, Fortnite has yet to return to iOS, which I feel like is wild. Is it available on the US iOS?

It’s about making sure that the shareholders get more returns each year. If revenue is down then they have to cut outgoings by even more, god forbid shareholders make a bit less this year.

"It's also stressed in the statement that the layoffs have nothing to do with AI.

Here's the statement from CEO Tim Sweeney."

Yeah, sure Tim, whatever you say.

If You Want to Play a New Unreal Tournament on PS5, There's a Good Chance You're Old

This possibly puts the failures of the Concords and the Highguards of the world in a slightly different light. Previously the accepted logic was that these titles weren't needed, as online gamers were catered for with Fortnite and other big hitters.

If even Fortnite isn't safe, then that would imply that the appetite for these games in general could be waning. If so, the likes of Concord never stood a chance

It was a good run! One that lasted a lot longer than I expected. Not many games last this long (as we’ve seen a lot recently)

I think the higher price of consoles this late in the generation has hurt growth. I can't remember a generation where prices went up as the consoles got older.

They might also be looking at GTA VI on the horizon and thinking "oh dear" (or words to that effect)

@get2sammyb One of your best (sub)titles in a long time imo. You know that Hookshot‘s typical readership is best described with „Sad Dad“.

@Max_the_German Guilty as charged. 😁

@INeedGoodGraphics By this point in the 3DS’ lifespan you could get a 2DS for like £70 with a game included. But then everything is expensive these days and has been for a few years now.

@Max_the_German
The average age for gamers is about 40 years old, so it's probably time for a new Unreal Tournament.

@ElkinFencer10 Epic have made it clear that UT is a dead franchise in their eyes and that’s why they are allowing fans to maintain the older games.

The only way we will see a new UT (unless we want a live service version which we don’t) is if someone licenses it.

@LowDefAl Nintendo made it clear that first party games wouldn't use game-key cards, yet Pokopia exists. What a company says one day and does the next are often incongruous. I'm sure everyone thought Bubsy was a dead franchise, too.

@HaveTheSauce it ain’t crazy at all; the game was a big original idea that pioneered an entire ongoing era of slop live service cringey s***

fortnite whether you like it or not is definitely in the hall of fame of gaming… unfortunately

@ElkinFencer10 Yeah your definitely right on that I loved unreal tournament on PC back in the day it was crazy good fun!

@ElkinFencer10 You mean, Bubsy isn’t dead?

@ElkinFencer10 All of Epics resources are in Fortnite or the engine so I don’t see any change here. They will look to reshine their golden goose before doing anything actually interesting.

It’s the same reason they sold Gears of War to Microsoft

I haven't played Fortnite in many, many years, but do feel for the 1000+ people about to lose their jobs. Maybe it's different in Europe, but for the US, those severance packages seem very generous, though.

Epic blaming "console sales" when UE5 is actively pushing people away from consoles games is laughable!

We are in the second video game crash. Just because it doesn't look like the first one does not mean that we are not in one. I believe the official total is around 45% total layoffs across the industry these past few years.

@ElkinFencer10 As someone that has over 100s of hours in Unreal Tournament 2004, from when I was a kid to even now, I'm really sad that UT is dead.
Epic had a great foundation for their revival by working with the community on a new entry, which is fitting with how much custom content is still being made for UT2k4. Just makes me sad it was tossed to the wayside once Fortnite became the juggernaut for them.

maybe this is proving that this type of game has or is coming to the end of it's cycle or maybe it is just the people that used to play Fortnite have actually grown up and have left that platform to play more age appropriate games. Fortnite to me always seemed to be aimed at the younger gamers

The game has between 30-60 million daily players, how is that struggling?

Cue the outrage for company cutting costs when sales drop. Zzzzz.

Everything comes to an end sooner or later, played Fortnite once many many years ago, to my astonishment I finished 3rd, but that was all needed to know that jumpy jumpy bang bang was not for me.

The people in the comments thinking this is the end of Fortnite don't really understand what's happening here. Fortnite is not struggling - they're spending more than they are making, but they are making a lot.

I guess Epic weren't joking when they said they need help paying their bills...

@wildcat_kickz 'Dying' cerainly isn't the right word. But, in their own words, there's a "downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025." A downturn significant enough to raise prices, layoff 1000 employees, and essentially kill several ongoing projects.

I doubt it's too late for things to turn around. But, sounds like we might be at the start of a grandiose decline.

@ElkinFencer10 The thing is that a new Unreal Tournament wouldn’t even make the same amount of money in it lifetime that Fortnite probably makes in a entire season… The big issue with Fortnite is it heavy reliance on licensed content and big name singer/actors.

@UltimateOtaku91 Cause in order to keep those 30-60 million daily players involves them spending so much on licensed content and big name actors/singers. No one is playing Fortnite for Fortnite. People are playing it cause you can have master chiefs fighting darth Vader fighting scooby doo… and that not cheap to have cause Microsoft/disney/wb want their license fees.

@RoomWithaMoose I just don't think we have the data to support that. They've probably passed peak engagement and will have to find a new normal, but saying that it's a "grandiose decline" is putting the cart way before the horse.

When you actually step back and think about the pure operating cost of Fortnite… You quickly realize that Epic is operating on tiny margins. Yeah they avoid engine cost and stuff. But that AWS cost gotta be pricey.

But let say you buy a marvel skin on console. Sony/Microsoft has to get their part of the micro transactions cost, then Disney has to get their part, then you probably have another middle man somewhere like the payment processing cost… etc.

The cost of paying singer and actor to be in game definitely ain’t cheap.

@INeedGoodGraphics You are right, but given that ps5 is doing similar numbers to ps4 despite costing twice the price at this point it’s not like it’s stopping people from buying them.

Nintendo are also picking up the slack from Microsoft.

Obviously they would sell more at a lower price but the market hasn’t really declined in the way some people would suggest. As long as you have a console someone wants of course.

Didn’t Epic say that user engagement had reached an all-time high during their Simpsons season?