Epic Games Announces Layoffs, Sells Bandcamp

Epic Games, maker of Fortnite and Unreal Engine, plans to lay off 16% of its workforce. In an internal memo posted Thursday afternoon, CEO Tim Sweeney announced the move that will see approximately 830 employees lose their jobs. 

In the statement Sweeney said that Epic has been “spending way more money than we earn” and that he “had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic.” The layoffs are joined by the divestiture of two of Epic’s businesses—music site Bandcamp and youth marketing company SuperAwesome, which combined account for roughly 250 of those employees being let go.

Impacted employees can expect to receive six months of severance pay and six months of healthcare in the US, Canada, and Brazil. Sweeney wrote that Epic Games could not achieve “financial sustainability” without layoffs, but that the company aims to cut costs while avoiding project delays as much as possible. Epic Games will continue to hire for “critical roles, while maintaining net-zero” with slimmed down personnel.

The layoffs come on a wave of similar news in the videogame industry. Earlier this month Embracer Group announced plans to sell Gearbox Entertainment, Activision Blizzard laid off members of its esports division over the summer, and Sega only recently canceled loot shooter Hyena. While the rest of 2023 is promising for videogames themselves, the future is looking less optimistic for their creators.