Fortnite developer Epic Video games has introduced it’s shedding 1,000 workers, resulting from a “downturn in engagement” in its evergreen battle royale.
In a message to workers shared publicly this morning, Epic Video games boss Tim Sweeney stated the corporate was “spending considerably greater than we’re making”, which means that it now wanted to make “main cuts to maintain the corporate funded.”
The information comes only a week after the launch of Fortnite’s highly-anticipated new battle royale season, and two weeks after the corporate controversially raised the value of the sport’s profitable V-Bucks in-game forex, prompting an enormous backlash from gamers.
“As we speak we’re shedding over 1,000 Epic staff,” Sweeney instructed Epic Video games staff. “I am sorry we’re right here once more. The downturn in Fortnite engagement that began in 2025 means we’re spending considerably greater than we’re making, and we now have to make main cuts to maintain the corporate funded.” As we speak’s layoffs are being accompanied by “over $500 million of recognized price financial savings” in contracting and advertising and marketing, he continued, whereas the hiring of some roles will stop.
“Among the challenges we’re dealing with are industry-wide challenges,” Sweeney wrote, blaming “slower progress, weaker spending, and harder price economics.” Discussing that final level in additional element, Sweeney stated that present consoles have been promoting lower than final technology, and famous that video games have been more and more competing for time towards different types of leisure.
“And a few of our challenges are distinctive to Epic,” he continued. “Regardless of Fortnite remaining one of the vital profitable video games on the earth, we have had challenges delivering constant Fortnite magic with each season; we’re solely within the early phases of returning to cellular and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones; and in being the {industry}’s vanguard we now have taken a whole lot of bullets in a battle which is just within the early days of paying off for ourselves and all builders.”
Initially launched again in 2017 as a easy PVE zombie shooter, Fortnite blew up in reputation when its builders rapidly launched a battle royale part, following the success of PUBG. The years that adopted noticed Fortnite capitalize on its success and turn into a popular culture phenomenon, house to record-breaking stay occasions and live shows, and crossovers with the world’s greatest leisure franchises.
As we speak, Fortnite is a platform the place its battle royale is only one gameplay mode amongst many, however its success has paled in comparison with the big playerbase of Roblox, whereas Epic’s personal efforts to develop Fortnite past its shooter origins have had combined fortunes. The corporate’s December 2023 Huge Bang relaunch which launched LEGO, racing and music modes didn’t develop the sport’s playerbase as hoped, and subsequent launches (together with an upcoming aggressive Enviornment possibility) have caught nearer to Fortnite’s shooter origins.
In a separate announcement at this time, Epic Video games stated its Pysonix-made Rocket Racing mode would go offline completely later this yr after beforehand being mothballed. Two different modes shall be culled subsequent month, in the meantime: Pageant Battle Stage, a extra aggressive tackle its predominant Harmonix-made music providing, and Fortnite Ballistic, an try at making a tactical shooter.
As we speak’s layoffs embody excessive profile and long-standing Fortnite staff members, together with principal engineer Evan Kinney, who posted his response on social media and stated he was “confused and bewildered” at being “thrown out” after years engaged on the sport and its common stay occasions.
i’ve carried out a lot for this firm and our video games
so many late nights
so many weekends
so many stay occasions, and aggressive occasions, and new options, and new seasonsstrong efficiency opinions each time
with a number of individuals mentioning how important i’m and what an affect i…— Evanosaurus “Unrawrl Engine 5.7” Rex (@evankinney) March 24, 2026
“What we now must do is obvious,” Sweeney continued in his message to workers, telling them they wanted to “construct superior Fortnite experiences with contemporary seasonal content material, gameplay, story, and stay occasions; speed up developer instruments with larger stability and functionality as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we’ll be kicking off the following technology of Epic with big launch plans in the direction of the tip of the yr.
“This is not our first time being right here, he continued. “Epic survived upheavals in 1990’s with the transfer from 2D to 3D with Unreal 1; within the 2000’s constructing console video games with Gears of Battle; and in 2012 transferring to on-line gaming with Paragon and Fortnite. Every time, we rebuilt our foundations and earned a renewed management place.
“Market situations at this time are probably the most excessive we have seen since these early days, with large upheaval within the {industry} accompanied by large alternative for the businesses that come out as winners on the opposite aspect. That is what we’re aiming to do for our gamers, and we purpose to carry different like-minded builders within the {industry} alongside on the journey to construct an more and more open and vibrant way forward for leisure collectively.”
On the subject of AI, Sweeney famous particularly that its rise in prominence inside sport improvement was not an element right here. “The layoffs aren’t associated to AI,” he famous. “To the extent it improves productiveness, we need to have as many superior builders creating nice content material and tech as we will.”
Concluding his message, Sweeney described the layoffs as “very painful”, and famous that impacted workers would obtain at the very least 4 months of base pay and healthcare protection, as effectively accelerated inventory choices. Epic Video games final held a significant spherical of layoffs in 2023, when it made 830 workers redundant — round 16% of its workforce on the time. Following that, the corporate was believed to make use of just a little over 4,000 individuals — suggesting that at this time’s mass layoffs have impacted nearly 1 / 4 of the corporate.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You may attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
