Fortnite developer Epic Games announces that 830 employees, 16% of all employees, will be laid off


by

Sergiy Galyonkin

Epic Games, which develops popular online games such as Fortnite , will lay off approximately 830 employees, or approximately 16% of its total workforce, on September 29, 2023 local time, and the online company it acquired in 2022. We have announced that we will be selling the music platform Bandcamp and spinning off SuperAwesome , which is part of Epic Games.

Layoffs at Epic - Epic Games
https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/layoffs-at-epic



Songtradr acquires Bandcamp

https://www.songtradr.com/blog/posts/songtradr-bandcamp-acquisition



Epic Games Is Cutting About 900 Jobs, or 16% of Staff - Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-28/epic-games-is-cutting-about-900-jobs-or-16-of-staff#xj4y7vzkg

Report: Epic Games Cutting 900 Jobs, 16 Percent Of Its Workforce
https://kotaku.com/epic-games-store-fortnite-unreal-engine-layoffs-1850882501

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney told employees on September 29, 2023, ``In addition to laying off approximately 830 people, or approximately 16% of all Epic Games employees, we will sell Bandcamp and take over the majority of SuperAwesome's business.'' announced that it will be a spin-off.

In the announcement, Sweeney said, ``For some time now, Epic Games has been investing in its future at a cost that far exceeds its revenue, and the popularity of Fortnite has made it more profitable than traditional battle royale modes.'' By moving to a lower creative mode, the revenue model has changed.' 'For a long time, I was optimistic that we would be able to survive without laying off employees, but looking back, I realize that was unrealistic,' he said. 'We have come to the conclusion that the only way to achieve stability is to reduce personnel.'

At the same time, Sweeney announced the sale of online music platform Bandcamp to music licensing platform Songtradr . According to the overseas mediaRocknerd , Songtradr's acquisition of Bandcamp will allow users who have previously posted songs on Bandcamp to sell their songs to Epic Games and other game production companies via Songtradr. It will be possible to do so.




Songtradr also plans to continue operating Bandcamp as a music platform with traditional artist-centered revenue distribution, and to build a system that will allow artists to license their songs to titles such as Fortnite. We are reporting that we will be working together with Epic Games.

In addition, Epic Games announced that its subsidiary SuperAwesome will become independent under CEO Kate O'Loughlin. SuperAwesome provided a platform called Kids Web Services (KWS) that requires parental confirmation and consent when minors play games distributed by Epic Games. Only SuperAwesome's advertising business will be separated from Epic Games, and KWS will remain part of Epic Games.



Of the approximately 830 people targeted for employee reduction at Epic Games, approximately two-thirds were employees outside of the main product development team. Additionally, approximately 250 people will be leaving the company due to the sale of Bandcamp and the independence of SuperAwesome. Sweeney said, ``Epic Games will temporarily lack resources due to this reduction in employees.As a result, some products may not be released according to the planned schedule, but Epic Games has the ability to become a top company in the Metaverse market.'' It's OK to make these schedule trade-offs to maintain the same.'

in Game, Posted by log1r_ut